Okami Odyssey
by AxeO'War
Summary: Chibiterasu was now a grown up deity traveling the world to the far reach of Egypt. His travels had brought him into the custody and care of Anubis of Egypt, however he had also become the object of a dark god's desires. As Chibi explores the world of Hellas and Kemet, he will learn the makings of a true deity.
1. Chapter 1: The Two-Lands

**Author's note: To anyone who recently read this story, I've recently done a massive rewriting and rework of the pacing and locations of the story so while the plot generally remain the same, events and placements of characters are now different.**

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Chapter 1: The Two Lands

He had been waiting for the moment quite sometime now, the moment when he can finally meet the boy of the Heaven's Illumination. He waited on the back of his horse Ramiel, observing the ocean quietly as the waves clapped against the stone docks of Myos Hormos trade port. The jet black jackal deity dismounted and paced back and forth anxiously. He held in his hand a letter sent by Amaterasu herself, written in Kanji but translated to Greek once he casted a translation spell on the letter.

Dear Anubis,

My old friend, the world has changed and no longer can we be the frogs at the bottom of the well. My son is now leaving Nippon, from my blessing and that of his father, and bound for Kemet. You know the lands of the far West better than I do. Therefore, I need you to keep my son safe for you are the only one I would trust. Accompanying him is my envoy, please don't mistake him for a flea despite his size but he can be quite a bit of a nuisance due to his rather… inflammatory speeches.

Yours truly,

Amaterasu, Origin of all that is Good and Mother to us all.

P.S.

Sometimes I wish the full title wasn't necessary. Everyone outside of Nippon knows I'm just the sun goddess of Nippon, not some 'origin of all' as if I created the world.

P.S.S.

Take good care of him. He means well, but he can be impulsive, as many gods his age are. Please pull him out of harm's way when you feel it may be beyond him. He is by no means weak, but he has difficulty realizing his limits at times.

Anubis rolled the letter up and tucked it under his armpit while looking at the ocean once again waiting for the arrival of a ship. Soon enough a wooden ship came into sight approaching the port, it had the moon like crescent curve design with rectangular masts matching descriptions of Nippon ships.

But something was afoot to him, it was rather small and less than a formal ship but more like a trade ship, it didn't have the grandeur, scale or the heavily armed escorts of an emissary ship.

Once it came close to the dock Anubis remained stoic and unfazed by its arrival and saw what appeared to be an anthro wolf with pristine white fur and intricate red divine marks on his face that formed into a circle on his forehead, while bits of it could be seen down his arm and legs too. The elaborate divine markings appear to glow brightly red as opposed to Anubis more subdued thin gold veins running along his body into perfect symmetric shapes.

He appeared to be dressed in traditional noble robe of Nippon with a green mirror hovering on his back. "Are you the son Amaterasu? You are certainly the spitting image of her if I may say so." Anubis remarked to his guest.

"That is me, yes," the wolf nodded. "And you are Anubis, correct? Mother told me much about you. My name is Taiyou, formerly Chibiterasu...but as I grew older I felt there was a need to change my childhood name," Taiyou said with a polite bow. "It is an honor to meet you."

"Nai aftó eínai sostó. (Yes that is correct) Anubis Philopator tis O ypókosmos (Anubis the benefactor of the Underworld). I met your mother and uncles in Baktria few years ago. She was… a beautiful lady to say the least." Anubis replied smittenly to Taiyou musing of Amaterasu while holding the letter she sent to him in hands. However their conversation turned awkward when a green bead like tiny creature bounce up and down before Anubis began to speak up.

"Look out kid, this guy sounds like he wants to kidnap your mom and tie her to a bed! And what's with the gibberish? Can you just talk normally?" Issun stated, though the first half of that had a more amused tone to it.

Anubis groaned and noticed the green Poncle, he huffed out blowing Issun back away a bit while the jackal deity kept his attention firmly on Taiyou. "I was warned of him by your mother. I hope he keeps in mind that he is not in Nippon anymore. This is Kemet." Said Anubis sternly before mounting on Ramiel's back while the horse neighed at the sight of Issun. Taiyou himself can see that Ramiel was a strange horse, a jet black equine with veins of gold on his body and golden mane. On his hips were symbol of Eye of Horus. A symbol of protection. His head mounted an armor mask to protect his face and head during combat charges. "Let's go then, follow me to Memphis, my estate will host you while you are in Egypt." said Anubis.

"Lead the way," Taiyou said with a smile, before turning to Issun. "And please don't cause too much trouble Issun. As Anubis said, we're not in Nippon anymore. The last thing we want is to offend a local culture...or offend and make enemies with the wrong person…"

"Heh, when have I ever caused any trouble?" Issun chuckled, to which Taiyou gave him a flat stare, thinking of whenever beautiful women were involved. Shaking his head, he just picked up Issun and put him on his head, before in a burst of light, his form shifted into that of a feral wolf who soon took off after Ramiel, quickly catching up to the horse.

As Anubis led Taiyou and Issun along the road towards Memphis, they passed by traders with oxens and wagons carrying goods and artisan crafts to and from Myos Hormos. Some were carrying imported goods like Ivory from Aethiopia, porcelain and fine silks from China, others were ferrying goods from Egypt like artisans, crafts work, jewelry made of gold abroad. The traders however noticed the white wolf racing next to Anubis on his horse and were naturally stunned. Some were terrified by the sight seeing the white color and ran out of the way. "Be careful with your own appearance in Kemet, the people here fears white. It signifies death for them." Said Anubis calmly to Taiyou as they reached the outskirts of Memphis.

The wolf didn't say anything, but he did nod to show he understood. Soon enough, they arrived at Memphis, the old capital of Egypt. The city itself appeared to be built in a watery riverine area of the Nile with the northern and southern ends of the city being farmlands and suburbs while the city's proper was walled off by towering white marble stone walls with the gates bearing hieroglyphic images of Ptah, Hathor with the former being the god of creation and architect; the latter being the goddess of truth, love, music.

"What's with the artwork around here anyway? They don't look half interesting at all and way too simplistic. I bet I can make something even better than more than half of the artists of this sandbox!" Issun proudly proclaimed while bouncing on Taiyou's back which prompted Taiyou to groan in pure annoyance hoping that none of the natives understood what he was saying.

"Hold!" Anubis reined Ramiel to a halt in a sudden by a water canal slicing through the streets, causing Taiyou to skirt to a halt as well. "What's with the stop here doggo? Are we having a flood or something?" Issun asked annoyed only to see Anubis finger silently directing Taiyou's attention to the crocodile that was nonchalantly swimming along the canal heading out to the Nile. Local people quickly ran away from the croc and avoided the reptile as it swam through the canal.

"The spawns of Sobek command the Nile. Respect them as if your life depends on it." Anubis explained to them both, causing Taiyou to gulp thickly seeing a reptile unlike any he had ever seen before. They were large and terrifying, and even without them being the spawn of a god, they were not something he'd want to get in a fight with without good reason.

"Pffft! I've seen scarier lizards tha-" Issun didn't get to finish as Taiyou took a page from his mother's book...and promptly snapped him up into his jaws...before the taste hit him and he spat the Wandering Artist out.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Issun said angrily. "I've had quite enough of being covered in wolf slobber the first time I was traveling with Ammy and her brothers!"

Taiyou looked at him in annoyance, and barked a few things. If there was one thing that was good about having Issun around, at least Poncles like him could actually UNDERSTAND him while he was a feral wolf.

"Well...guess you got a point there. Probably not a good idea to anger a local god," Issun conceded. "Fine, I'll be quiet until we get to wherever we're staying." and with that, he hopped back on top of Taiyou's head, quickly disappearing in his fur.

"Enough!" Anubis growled sternly to them both, asserting a more commanding attitude towards them both. "Let's go while we can. There are more of them prowling the Nile. Some even make nests within the city." With that revelation it sent a shivering fear up their spines knowing that there will inevitably be more of those crocodiles swimming around the canals and river front of the city.

The jackal deity led them through the northern residential area of the city towards what appeared to be an estate near the river banks of the Nile. There they saw that Anubis had numerous crops of wheat and barley, other crops were of cabbages and cash crop produces to export for money.

"Home sweet home…" Anubis paused and sighed out before dismounted from Ramiel, leading his horse into the stable and removed the horse's rein and kept him inside the stable. Anubis then led Taiyou and Issun into the estate, which was a rather spacious manor made of mud brick sporting stone walls and a large scenic garden with a long rectangular pond filled with lotuses and flower pots around the pool's sides.

Around the premisses, Taiyou and Issun would see that there were servants, slaves working to tend the place. Despite being slaves that Anubis own, they didn't seem at all abused, ragged or poor. They were at least clothed properly with trousers, wigs and even proper linen bras for the female slaves. It was an odd sight of two opposite things and yet they seem to work in tandem with one another.

"Huh...I heard this place has slaves, but they look more like well treated servants," Issun mused, while Taiyou looked at Anubis and tilted his head in question of that.

"There are standards for holding slaves. If you want them, feed them, cloth them, shelter them." Said Anubis as he nonchalantly approached one of the slaves standing by the crop with a papyrus list in hand and a pencil in another. "Moeshe, how's the harvest?" He asked the slave, who then read aloud the list of recorded harvest from the crops Anubis owns.

"Great Patron of the Dead," Anubis groaned quietly in his mouth when he heard his title spoken out, "Today the farm hands harvested four full crops of wheat, four more crops of cabbages and 3 crops of olives. We will have quite a bit of surplus in stock." The slave finished, to which Anubis nodded a bit before scratching his chin thinking. "No reasons to let them rot for myself, get the surplus to the Agora, find a vendor and sell him those. I'm sure they will be happy." Anubis instructed Moeshe and the slave nodded obediently to Anubis before running to the warehouse to begin counting the surplus.

Anubis then turned back to Taiyou and Issun before gesturing them to go inside with him. "When you have a slave, you should make him more valuable. By teaching him new skills, you might be able to sell him to higher nobility." the deity remarked casually as he opened the door to the estate to welcome them inside. Taiyou and Issun found that the interior was a well decorated estate with wooden furniture crafted with intricate details or statues and figures of deities acting as guardians of the home. On the floor of the estate was a sleeping monster.

A monster with the head and maw of a crocodile, mane of a lion, with the body of a lion for its front half while the rear half was the body of a hippopotamus with a fluffy lion tail. The monster snoozed peacefully and rolled around on the floor before its eyes kicked open, seeing its master has come home the monster happily ran over to Anubis and cuddled up to him, letting Anubis petting its head and stroke its chin.

"Is that common around here, or is it just you?" Issun said as both he and Taiyou had large sweat drops.

"Just me. No mortals can command Ammit." Anubis nonchalantly remarked as the monster came over to Taiyou sniffing him. It seems to have its eyes adjusted by zooming in and out of its eye sockets. The monster seem oddly enough rather calm and didn't open its maw threateningly to Taiyou. But it was much hungrier looking when it eyed Issun. Seemingly like it could sense some semblance of depravity in Issun no matter how remotely.

"I don't like the way it's looking at me," Issun said, getting a big further from Ammit. "Though why is it okay with Chibi?"

"The Devourer of the Accursed can see the heart of the pure. Evil and depravity however…" He paused briefly for added sinister effect as Ammit yawned before Issun with its mouth raised to its maximum height. This further alarmed Issun to run further back into the fur on Taiyou's back. Just then Ammit lowered its maws and closed it gently. "Respect Ammit. And your journey in the Duat will be easier." Anubis remarked nonchalantly before leading Taiyou and Issun upstairs to where they will stay and sleep. There they found that the estate had a bedroom for Taiyou with a wardrobe containing various outfits of Greek noblemen along with some for Egyptian nobles.

Taiyou himself saw that the golden bed that he will be sleeping on had its legs being heavily ornate cobra motifs as if to show power and prestiges of the owner as well as safety in their slumber literally and metaphorically. Before his bed, there was a wooden chest with the falcon of Horus on either sides facing each other with their wings spread out. "This will be your bedroom for the time being, you may want to check your money. Unless you want to be a poor boy in Kemet." Anubis reminded Taiyou as the slaves below were bringing some of Taiyou's luggage into the estate.

Taiyou nodded, before suddenly the robes he'd been wearing appeared before him, the wolf taking them in his mouth and walking into the bathroom. A few minutes later, he walked out of the bathroom, once again in his anthro form and dressed in the robes. "Sorry about that. I can't talk while I'm a feral wolf. Not to mention, unlike my parents, I haven't QUITE mastered how to transform AND clothed myself simultaneously," he admitted a bit sheepishly.

"So you have wardrobe malfunction with your Polymorph spell? You are young, give it time and perseverance and you will master it." Said Anubis as he then sat down on a table with Taiyou and began to count the money he had.

"It's a bit more than that really. Even if both my parents are gods, I'm technically a demigod," Taiyou admitted as he was going through his money and things. "You know the story of my parents, right?"

Anubis nodded, to which he continued.

"Well, while dad was redeemed and eventually ascended, he sired me while he was still just imitating a deity. As a result, I'm still a demigod and thus I didn't QUITE inherit the full abilities of both my parents."

"Hmmm knowing the Greek pantheons I can't say this is too surprising either. Each new child of Zeus got a different role and power from him. But at least they remain somewhat consistent as far as patternity is concerned." Anubis finished as he tapped the pencil on the table. "My mother was a goddess of funerary rites. I inherited Necromancy from her, but Thoth found that I was able to master some much darker forms of Necromancy." Said Anubis with a grimace knowing his potential being much much more terrifying than most would dare speak of when it comes to Necromancy.

As he counted the gold Yen coins Taiyou had, Anubis was rubbing his chin visibly concerned and stumped in his thought process. A bad sign Taiyou and Issun can tell, the jackal deity then stood up and declared with a solemn tone to Taiyou. "It seems you are a poor boy in Egypt, and Hellas. No one here would use your money, they have their attitudes quite clear. Come with me, I'll take you to the bank, they'll exchange your money with Drachma. At least then you can pay for services."

The jackal deity then went upstairs apparently to change his clothes, after some minutes, he finally came down wearing an armor set on his abdomen region looking like segmented scales of reptiles.

He also seem to have a scarab belt buckle to keep his trousers wrapped and clipped along with gauntlets and leg guards made of gold bearing the Ankh symbol. On his back Anubis was carrying two bows, one of which had his jackal head motif on either ends of the bow as gold decorations, the other had a more boney like design radiating dark misty smoke from its body alone. On his belt, Anubis had a golden sword secured in its scabbard with the hilt bearing his Jackal head motif.

"Right, it would be a problem if I can't even afford anything," Taiyou nodded as he gathered the money...though he kept some of the Ryo separate for when he would return home. "Lead the way," he said...before looking at the weapons. "Are they your personal weapons? Like the Divine Instruments my family uses?"

"They are. The Hunger of the Underworld and the Jackal's Gaze." Anubis showed the bows to Taiyou and Issun, the first being the boney looking bow and the next was the one sporting Anubis jackal head motifs as decor. The names alone were quite sinister and intimidating but befitting the stern and stoic character of Anubis, he then drew his golden sword for Taiyou to see, it was a Greek design of a stabbing sword with golden hieroglyphic writing on the blade stating its name "Conductor of Souls". "Like any other deities, I must earn these weapons by mastering them. Once they were ordinary weapons any mortals could wield. But in my hands, they become extensions of my soul." Anubis then sheathed the sword into the scabbard and led Taiyou and Issun out of the estate.

They first walked out towards the nearby dock where they boarded a felucca, the oarsman there then began to steer the felucca along the Nile and water canals of Memphis towards the inner parts of the city. As they travel however, the felucca suddenly tumbled and shifted violently from beneath as the oarsman fell overboard by a crocodile attacking them.

His passengers were not better off as they too fell into the deep and murky water of the Nile. The crocodile spotted its prey and began to swim for the desperate oarsman who was throwing his hands up to catch his felucca. "Help me! Help me! I do not want to go to the Duat right away!" The oarsman screamed out. Hearing this Anubis quickly leapt into the air before landing on the water surface, seemingly standing on the water surface with his hind legs drawing mana to keep himself afloat.

He then pulled out his Hunger of the Underworld bow and nocked an arrow with five more in reserves. Anubis let loose the arrow flying at the crocodile's back, piercing its rough leathery hides, he then charged the reptile as it was swinging its tail furiously to swat him aside. Taiyou and Issun both saw Anubis leapt into the air and shower the crocodile's back with his arrows some pierced through its hides perpendicularly.

The reptile flipped its stomach up with its blood bleeding out into the Nile's water while its corpse floated away along the rivers flow. "May the Hidden One walks you to the Afterlife spawn of Sobek. The Lord of the Duat awaits." Anubis spoke his funerary parting words to the crocodile before helping the oarsman up to his felucca before proceeding to help Taiyou and Issun.

Several more crocodiles came swimming, hoping to get a bite, but they promptly had wounds appear on their bodies in the form of slash marks, causing them to swim away in pain. "You held back a bit there," Issun noted.

"If they're considered sacred, then I'd rather not kill them," Taiyou sighed, having just used the Power Slash to make them go away.

"The spawns of Sobek take lives as they please. They have neither malice nor noble intents. Sobek is warrior of pure ferocities and aggression, therefore he holds nothing personal. Even down to the death of his children." Anubis remarked as he then gestured for the oarsman to continue on their way towards the bank of Memphis.

"Well...good to know," Taiyou sighed. "At least I don't have to worry about angering a local god even if it was self defense."

As Anubis and his group arriving at the Bank in front of the temple of Ptah at the center of the city, the jackal deity led Taiyou before an Egyptian man by a scale with some bags of Drachma coins on the table for exchange. "Can you help me with this boy's money, neb?" Anubis politely asked the man who then nodded to Anubis and was seemingly beside himself being given the chance to assist a deity for once in a day.

"Of course great Lord Anubis, anything for you indeed. Are we talking about Drachma, Denarii?" He asked excitedly before seeing Taiyou deposit his bag of Ryo on the table, to which the man took with a stunned expression. "My lord this money is foreign, I'm not sure if I can get an exact exchange for your client. At best an approximation." Said the banker as he sat down.

"That's fine," Taiyou spoke up. "Honestly, I was somewhat expecting this. Nippon isn't exactly wide spread in the world," he sighed.

"Approximation is better than nothing neb. Anything to help this boy get off the ground." Hearing Anubis instruction, the banker nodded and began to measure the bag of Ryo on the scale. He then began to add bags of silver Drachma coins, eventually he found that a total of 4 small bags of silver Drachma coins was enough to Taiyou's bag of Ryo.

"That would be 540 Drachma, the young master's name?" He began to write down Taiyou's name with a pencil on a papyrus paper with the amount of money he had exchanged. "Taiyou." the white wolf demigod spoke up causing the banker to have a moment of confusion due to the foreign sounding name. He then attempted to write it down as best as he could, finding the syllables and phonetics quite difficult.

"My Lord Anubis is this boy from a foreign land? I know Persian, Jewish, Greek and Egyptian, Roman names but not this one." He asked curiously to Anubis who nodded to the banker and scratched his head a bit. "Indeed, he came from beyond Baktria, a land named Nippon. His mother, the Sun Goddess there entrusted me with his care and custody for the time being." Hearing this the banker's face seem to be petrified by the sheer amount of amazing information that was revealed to him in one day. "Of course I will keep that in mind. The priests of Ptah would like to see you lord Anubis, there seems to be some problems with the underground catacombs."

"Right, seeing that I'm here now, I shall pay them a visit. Come on Taiyou, time to see what's with the morgue." Anubis then led Taiyou and Issun with him into the Temple of Ptah, a massive marble stone temple complex with numerous hieroglyphic depictions of deities such as Ptah, Khnum, Osiris, Isis, Hathor Ma'at with writings meant to exalt their deeds and preserve their memories for all mortals. Within the temple courtyard, one of the priests approached Anubis, this one appeared to have a leopard skin wrapped across his body with a blue headcap and a scepter in hand.

"Amenhotep, is there something wrong with the catacombs of the temple?" Anubis asked the man who sighed out to him before pointing Anubis to the corpse of a cobra his priest had on the table. One of the physicians was busy dissecting the serpent's remains. "Vile spawns of Apep came into the catacombs and made nest within it. We would have flushed them out ourselves if it weren't for their numbers. We also fear that the Nile's flooding, blessing as it maybe, might flood the catacombs as well."

"Spawn of Apep? Snakes?" Taiyou checked. "That'd be a big problem if they got out thanks to the flooding…" he'd seen snakes before, it helped too that Nuregami and her kin were snakes who ruled over water. But a feral snake would be very dangerous if they were to flood the streets, especially if they were venomous.

"Who is this young Lycan my lord? He seems divine." Amenhotep took notice of Taiyou and was visibly curious at the foreign appearance of his red divine markings. "This is Taiyou, son of Amaterasu from Nippon. She entrusted him to my care." Anubis explained to the high priest who then made an awed expression and nodded understandably. "Of course lord Anubis, the High Priests of Ptah are happy to help you in anyway we can. Please follow me."

Amenhotep then led Taiyou and Anubis through the West wing of the temple complex, along the way they passed by a secretary and scribe writing various catalogues of deceased priests and people of Memphis in the morgue area. There, Taiyou noticed that the ceiling was designed to be an open air area where the corpses were placed on operating tables with their organs being removed and their bodies were bathed in salts apparently.

The removed organs were in turn placed inside of jars with various heads like Jackal, falcon, baboon and cobra. "Ewww what are they doing to the dead bodies?! Is this their fetish or something? These people are dead already no need for messy works like removing their organs!" Issun launched into a terrified tirade as he bounced up and down Taiyou's head seeing the process of mummification with the dead bodies being wrapped in linen fabric head to toe.

The men who were conducting the process were supervised and overseen by an anthro jackal similar to Anubis with gold veins on his black body, this jackal in turn chant various spells and incantations to protect the dead as they were being embalmed. "May the Hidden One walks you to the Afterlife, the Lord of the Duat awaits." Anubis chanted as he passed by the morgue, blessing the dead in the process as their amulets were put into place on their sarcophagus.

"That's a process of mummification, Issun," Taiyou sighed. "It's a very important burial ceremony for the culture of Egypt. I know it's different than how Nippon does it, but please don't word it so carelessly."

"Right right. Knew I should have read those scrolls more…" Issun said a bit sheepishly. Burial rituals were always a big deal.

As they passed through the morgue and arrived at the entrance to the catacombs, Anubis found that hallways underneath were already showing signs of flooding, with water seeping in thanks to the Nile, the process of escaping the catacombs became even more perilous for the priests than actually getting rid of the Cobra. "There has to be an alternate way in. Perhaps the nearby cistern might help." Anubis mused before jumping down to a circular cistern in the yard with Taiyou.

There he opened a wooden door to let Taiyou enter first with a torch before following behind. "Be careful. The flooding might have weakened the floor you're walking on." As they walked forward however, his words were proven correct with Taiyou's floor caving in dragging him down towards the underground water flow. Taiyou was taken by the Nile into what appeared to be where the water flow in, a rather large crack on the wall where the water had been flowing in like a shower. "Well at least we found our way in, now we need to find our way out Chibi. And I don't like being mistaken for a bug by those creepy cobras, they look nasty!" Issun remarked while looking around the catacombs seeing that the torches had long been extinguished by the water.

"Well, nothing we haven't had to deal with before, right?" Taiyou chuckled a little, before the world froze around him as he activated his Celestial Brush, the world turning into a canvas. Drawing an infinity symbol near the torches, he used Fireburst to cause a burst of flames to happen when he dismissed the Brush, the torches lighting up and the water in them drying up instantly, illuminating the path. "Now, let's find a way out."

As Taiyou and Issun navigated their way through the maze like corridors of the catacombs, Taiyou found the burial chamber of the previous high priest infested with cobras. All of them were dark as night, with their hisses piercing the darkness and Taiyou's ears like sharp knives carving at his flesh. His Illumination soon showed him the floor to be crawling with serpents all of whom looking very angry at him. They revealed their hoods and rose up from the ground hissing with heightened aggression with some even snapping at Taiyou's feet to scare him away from their nesting ground. "Uh Chibi I think they really want to dig their fangs deep into your flesh. Don't let them." Said Issun as he quivered in fear.

"Don't worry, I don't intend to let them," Taiyou frowned, as the Reflector on his back rotated, and soon floated to his left hand, floating just off of it like a shield. It spun quickly, before he launched it like a discuss, causing it to hit several of the snakes, while surprising the others...which soon lost their heads as once again Taiyou used the Celestial Brush and executed the Power Slash Brush to deal with them. "If they're infesting this tunnel, then we need to clear them out," he said as the Reflector returned to him.

"I can agree with that. Question is, where are these things coming from?" Issun said.

There was almost no answers explicitly given to either Taiyou or Issun, rather they only hear the hissing of serpents and their slithering on the ground to scare them away. Some other snakes that were cut up simply twitched on the floor while blood splattered the floor and wall. Above them, the priests and workers managed to unearth the ceiling of the catacombs, Taiyou could begin to see sunshine down on the catacombs.

Anubis above was seen holding a scepter in hand, this one had a curve sickle like top end that lob energy balls at his foes. Anubis slammed the hilt on the ground summoning a portal on the floor, from which the hands of the dead rose up grabbing at the snakes choking and even outright tearing out their heads. "Boy, take my hand!" Anubis called out commandingly as he reached down from the ceiling at Taiyou.

Taiyou didn't need to respond, quickly holding out his hand and grabbing hold of Anubis's, to which they were soon pulled out of the opening to the catacombs. "Yeah, there's a real infestation down there," Taiyou confirmed once they were out.

"This is abnormal of snakes, they wouldn't have gone in large packs let alone burrow themselves into a single tomb." Anubis mused as he dragged Taiyou up from the catacombs with the priests around him beginning to toss down torches to confirm the number of serpents killed. To their eyes, it would seem a total of 40 to 50 cobras were killed by Anubis and Taiyou, it would seem that for now the only thing they need to worry about was to clean up the corpses and remove the remains from the catacombs.

"Would it bother the cult of Ptah to spend their money on local architects and workers?" Anubis asked Amenhotep who hesitantly scratched his chin. "Well it would be a bit of problem, the cult is planning renovations for the morgue and burial grounds. I suppose we can spare some Drachma to hire local architects and workers." The high priest stated. "Hmmm you're telling me that a high priest like you intend to evade taxes?" Anubis pried at the priest, making him nervous further at Anubis method of questioning and investigating suspects. "Please my lord, it's just that beside levying taxes from the faithfuls, we have little to no other forms of financial revenue.

"If it's just fixing the morgue and burial grounds, I can do that free of charge," Taiyou spoke up.

"Can you, boy?" Anubis asked tersely, his skepticism was still high showing Taiyou that he had been undergoing several investigations regarding strange occurrences within Memphis alone. "You bet dog guy! Chibi here can Rejuvenate a broken bridge, fix your roof, your door and just about anything you find broken! Give them a whiff of your power kid! I'm sure they'll convert to your faith in a moment!" Issun excitedly proclaimed.

"Easy there Issun, I didn't come here to garner followers," Taiyou said in amusement. "But yes, if its restoring things, it's one of the abilities I have," he said with a nod.

"Then by all means, do it. Maybe the cult here can save up taxes for infrastructure renovation and more modest ceremonies." Anubis said sarcastically to Taiyou, who then began to render the world in a canvas like texture before he proceeded to draw lines of inks on the cracks and holes on the walls.

As he did so and the world returned to normal, the damages to the catacombs were repaired with the stones being restored to their original strength with hieroglyphic writing on them once again. "See what I mean? Taiyou here can fix everything in your damaged temples and premisses! Now if you all excuse us, we'll be heading home now." Issun declared to the High Priest as the cult of Ptah celebrated and cheered for the effort by Taiyou repairing their temple. "You did a service to the cult of Ptah, the people of Memphis won't soon forget this." Anubis commended Taiyou as they left the temple heading home to his estate.

"It's nothing to worry about. I only did what a god should do. Help those in need," Taiyou said with a soft smile.

"Taiyou, I should let you know this," Anubis began as he walked with Taiyou back to the estate along the streets of Memphis, "Before you came here, there have been several abnormal events happening around Egypt. Memphis is the latest epicenter. Just the previous week, my Pentakosiarch reported that his Jackal Guards garrison in Memphis was able to fight off several raids by a Chimera. Something I intend to finish. The question is who brought it here?" Anubis finished.

"Chimera...isn't that a creature that looks like an amalgamation of several creatures?" Taiyou checked. "And if someone brought it here...do you know anyone who could control something like that and would want to cause trouble?"

"I wish I knew. That is why you must be careful. At this point anything can and will happen to you and the people of Egypt, the wish for a familiar past is impossible." Anubis reminded Taiyou as the two waded through a river ford to the otherside of the streets.

"Understood. I'll be careful," Taiyou nodded. Issun though...

"As if he needs to be," Issun laughed. "He could beat Akuro when he was a puppy. He could wipe the floor with any monster by himself now!"

"Watch your tongue, this is not Nippon, Kemet is home to beasts far beyond your understanding. To say nothing of the Greeks coming here to settle or just looking for adventure like any malaki that thinks they can find their way to Nubian gold mine." Said Anubis with a noticeably strong Greek accent. It was odd for Taiyou and Issun to hear an Egyptian deity speak with Greek accent and Greek language but as the saying goes "There's always something new in Africa."

"Anubis is right, Issun. Even if I did win against Akuro, doesn't mean I'll be fine against anything that comes up here. There are reasons why monsters like these are still treated with caution even among some of the gods," Taiyou agreed, seeing the wisdom in Anubis's words.

[hr]

As the night came to Memphis with the people of the city turning in for the evening, Anubis and Taiyou were at home in Anubis's estate having dinner served to them by the slaves in his estate. The meals were curry rice and fish with salad and dressing. As they were eating by the table however, Anubis heard the sound of someone knocking on his door.

The Jackal deity came to open the door and found a man wearing a red robe with a decapitated ram head on his head, in his hand he held a wooden staff fashioned to look like a Was Scepter of Khnum the solar God at dusk and in some interpretations, an aspect of Ra. "Have you come to make sense of my dreams?" He asked and the man nodded. "Khnum has spoken, your dreams are premonitions, warnings of your suffering in the future." Hearing this Anubis glare grew much more venomous and contemptuous of the prediction. "And?" He asked tersely. "No matter where you run, no matter what you do, you will never escape the pain of losses." The man replied in a cryptic tone and Anubis scoffed to this. "Story of my life." the jackal deity remarked. "Care for dinner?" He asked the man who nodded to Anubis invite.

"Of course, I perhaps should give your guest his own premonition." Said the Seer as he walked into the estate with Anubis meeting Taiyou and Issun in the progress. "Taiyou, this is Khnumoses, the Seer. He's here to give you a prediction of what's to come in your future." Said Anubis as the Seer sat down with them as he then handed Taiyou what appeared to be some form of wickers and woods of a strange plant Taiyou had never seen before.

"I see…" Taiyou blinked. "What kind of method do you use? The only Seer I've ever been to used bones," he asked curiously.

"I shall read your dream, when your mind is cleansed of thoughts by the sacred breath of the Gods, we shall see your future and the portent of your Fate." The Seer then placed the wickers and woods into a bronze plate then set the content on fire. The smoke rose from the plate and entered Taiyou's nose, the Seer then began to chant his incantation. Taiyou himself felt his mind drifted, it was like a drug induced trip that lifted his soul to the clouds.

Whatever that he saw before him it was more of a dark void than anything like normal reality, before him was pitch black with golden outlines of light beaming across the void. The only thing that kept him running to was a white light door in front of him. He saw that upon entering the whitelight doorway, he came across what appeared to be a Field of Reeds, an endless field with the warm sun on his back with his paw being able to feel the reeds fluttering. He wasn't alone however, he saw before him what appeared to be a massive albino scorpion roaming the land.

"What…?" Taiyou blinked at the sight of the vision. "What is this…?"

When he took a step closer to inspect the giant scorpion, the creature turned to face him directly and began to approach him, its claws snapped menacingly in the air as it came towards him. It then suddenly struck Taiyou in his heart with the massive tail leaving a shiny bright as the sun hole on his torso. He felt the sting, painful as it was, he felt his body spin and fly uncontrollably in the air before he fell down and woke up from the trance.

He saw himself on the floor of Anubis estate with Anubis and the Seer standing over him. The Seer himself held his scepter aloft as he continued to mumble incoherently. Random words escaped his mouth, fragments of a sentence that barely made clear meaning. "The color of love...a sting of a scorpion, the omen of bliss and tragedy from the Gods. Your path will be of trials, your life will bridge two worlds and you yourself will walk the Duat." The Seer proclaimed much to Anubis concerns.

"Oookay, not sure if that's comforting or not," Taiyou remarked dryly. "The sting sure didn't feel pleasant, though...what does it mean? And what was that about love?"

"The Duat, the Egyptian underworld. Does that mean he will die Seer?" Anubis asked the Seer who then gave Anubis an equally cryptic reply. "Khnum, God of the Sun at dusk, bore me these words. Tis' not the boy's fate to leave your side. He shall when the time is right but till then, Anubis, you are the shadow of the Hidden One, the breath of Osiris and the Sword of the Duat protect him you shall." He then packed up his belongings and began to leave Anubis and Taiyou be and went home.

"...well...that was...something…" Taiyou blinked. "He never answered the last bit though," he mused.

"Isn't it obvious? About time you found a girl for yourself!" Issun said with a laugh.

"We'll see…but I take caution at women and relationships with them, I lost one before." Anubis stated grimly as he closed the door of the estate and gestured for the servants to clean up the finished plates as dinner concluded. Anubis then led Taiyou upstairs for him to sleep well, "Good night young one, tomorrow, I'll take you to the Pharaoh if nothing gets in the way." Said Anubis as he let Taiyou sleep.

[hr]

The next day came with the sun shining into the Estate, its rays penetrated the windows and curtains and got into Taiyou's eyes, the heat of the day also build up and forced him to wake up from his sleep. Taiyou and Issun found that Anubis wasn't in the estate, instead, he was out by the Nile riverbanks sitting with his legs curled up and his hands rested on both kneecaps. He was meditating it seems with the sunlight shining down on him, highlighting the jet black fur color of Anubis. He didn't wear anything but a loincloth and his golden wrist gauntlets.

He stood up from the riverbank, still having his eyes closed and stretched both hands out. He opened his palms and began to summon the water of the Nile rising up into his palms and formed into two spheres. He swung his arms gracefully as he spun around before channeling his mana to manipulate the water of the Nile into solid liquid spheres before he launched them towards the sun, letting the water fall across the desert or evaporate into steam.

"His control is incredible," Taiyou said in slight wonder at the sight of the more experience god making use of pure mana in contrast to how he used the Brush Techniques to help him easily control things. "I'll need to train a lot if I want to get that far soon."

"Pffft! I think you already have reached his level Chibi, I mean this guy's water trick is baby compared to your Brush Techniques and he-" Issun however was cut off when he heard Anubis voice interrupted his proclamation. "And he is busy today." Anubis said sternly, slightly irritated. "Malaka of a flea." He grumbled.

"There's a monster ravaging the northern end of the city, a Chimera it seems. I need to go to stop it before it levels the Lycan suburb, my Pentakosiarch should be mobilizing his troops to defend the city by now." Said Anubis as he apparently able to teleport back into the house by melting into the shadow and materialize at his destination.

Anubis grabbed hold of his Strategos armor, a Greek linen thorax armor made from bronze and composite materials to make the armor lighter. His helmet also appeared to be Greek design with two cheek plates tied together under his chin with the top of the helmet sporting what appeared to be a wolf's head motif made of silver.

The Strategos of Memphis then sheathed his Conductor of Soul sword, mounted his bows and arrows before walking out of his estate, his slaves were waiting outside with one of them held Ramiel's rein in hand to keep the steed steady for Anubis to climb on. "Will you be back for lunch master Anubis?" Moeshe asked Anubis. "When you hear the cheer, make lunch." Said Anubis.

"In short, a victory meal?" Taiyou chuckled, summoning one of his Divine Instruments, this time being the copy of Tsukumogari. "In that case, let's hunt a Chimera then," he said, his tone seemingly relaxed, but his expression was focused.

Anubis then rode off to the northern suburbs of Memphis just beyond the city walls, along the way Taiyou noticed that he was accompanied by what appeared to be anthropomorphic jackals towards the Memphis. Each one of them appeared to look almost identical to Anubis, sculpted in his image more like with gold veins scattered on their body.

Each one were dressed in Greek style linen thorax armor with most carrying large oval nut shaped shields made of wood and leather. In their hands, each one was carrying a Greek style stabbing sword and two javelins. Their captain was leading in front with his purple cape flowing behind him as he sprinted. On the wall of the city, archers and militia forces assemble while the Lycans, anthro wolves and canines like Taiyou were running into the heart of the city seeking refuge inside the Temple of Ptah and Temple of Hathor.

"Archers at the ready!" The Toxiarchis shouted on top of the wall as the city gate was closed behind Anubis and Taiyou with the Pentakosiarch of the local Jackal Guards garrison formed into defensive shield wall formation to stop the incoming rampaging monster. "Steady men! You are Warriors of the Afterlife. You have lived once, here you shall stand and fight! Defend the lives of the innocent! For your son! For your wives! For your families! For the Two-Lands, one heart, one soul; to arms!" The Pentakosiarch whipped his men into fighting spirit as they growled and snarled, waiting for their enemy to come into sight.

"How effective will those arrows be on a Chimera? I thought those things were supposed to be...very durable," Taiyou frowned.

"They're effective, as a distraction." Anubis remarked tersely to Taiyou. Eventually they saw the Chimera rampaging through the treelines along the Nile riverbanks, tearing through the farms and crops that farmers hastily left. Taiyou would see what appeared to be a feral monster with two heads. One of a lion and the other of a deer with the body being an amalgamation of lion and deer bodies.

Its tail was a literal snake hissing and leering at its prey, the monster ran close to the defenders and began to breathe fire on the flora around the city gates and the suburb, prompting the Thuerophoroi Swordsmen quickly charged the monster, tossing their javelins at it before drawing their swords to close up and try to overwhelm it.

Despite taking the javelins to its body and legs, the monster was quite durable and likewise made a leap as graceful as a deer but with the strength of a lion before landing on the ground, sending a shockwave throwing the troops flying. It was then that Anubis summoned his magical scepter in his left hand and threw out his Mummify linen wrappings to ensnare the monster. He then quickly charge it slashing his Conductor of Soul across its side before pelting it with his Breathe of Locusts attack, breathing out hordes of ethereal locusts tearing off some of the flesh of the Chimera before it breath fire burning the linen wrapping to escape.

Taiyou didn't sit still either, quickly using his brush, he sent a Galestorm at the Chimera, giving any arrows flying a tailwind, while blowing away the flames, removing one of the monster's weapons. The arrows landed on the Chimera's body, piercing deep into its hides causing the Chimera groaned and growled in pain. Its lion head roared out before running into the suburbs of the Lycan to hide from the archers, prompting Anubis to dismount and give chase into the suburbs.

Taiyou followed, going for the offense, using a mix of his brush techniques and his copy of the Devout Beads to fire projectile shots at the Chimera.

The Chimera seeing that it was being attacked incessantly by the deities and the defenders of Memphis growled out and began to breathe fire out at the suburb burning down portions of the mud brick houses.

Anubis seeing was visibly outraged with him baring his teeth out and his eyes glow a cyan and sickly green glow as he levitated into the air, his eyes shot out his signature Death Gaze at the Chimera.

The beam struck the monster on its side pushing it tumbling away from the urban structures and once the Chimera pant and got back on its feet, Tayou can see the side of the monster charred, burned and tore up.

It huffed out and spat puddles of its blood on the ground with both the deer and lion heads heaving heavily. The monster was now dazed and stunned as its walking appeared to be that of a drunkard before fixing its exhausted gaze on Anubis and Taiyou. The Jackal Guards warriors formed up behind Anubis with their shields locked together into a solid wall preparing to meet the Chimera.

Behind them was Ammit, the Devourer appeared to had been led there by one of the slaves of Anubis house. The smaller pet like monster coming up next to Anubis staring at its meal with blood red eyes gleaming with hunger, and with its tongue salivating around Ammit's maw making the message all too clear.

Despite that, the Chimera had no intention of backing down, and suddenly lunged forward, but at the same time, Taiyou used Greensprout to make a tree pop out right under it, causing it to fly back, followed by another application to make a vine to swing him towards it. Summoning his Glaive and Reflector, he soon wielded them like a sword and shield, striking at the Chimera, which countered with a snap of its jaws...to which Taiyou used Divine Retribution to keep the monster back, and in a fluid movement, let the Reflector hold the monster, before plunging his Glaive into its neck.

With the Glaive cleaved through its neck and flesh, the monster's blood splat out and it roared out its last as the beast's body twitched and spattered out. The Chimera would soon reduce to a lifeless corpse, still fresh with blood and flesh. But Ammit had no interests in blood or meat, instead the Devourer went over to the Chimera's corpse and mauled out the heart of the Chimera, chewing and swallowing it after a few munches with its lips bloodied from the meal. "Well… at least that takes care of our problem. But the question is where did it come from?" Anubis rubbed Ammit's head and pet it with some affection before looking at the corpse of the Chimera. The Jackal Guards around them dragged the Chimera corpse off to dispose of and prevent diseases from affecting local farms.

"Well that's that," Taiyou sighed. "I can see why its a feared beast. Hopefully we won't have to deal with more anytime soon if at all."

Anubis nodded as he watched the Chimera corpse being dragged off to some place far away from the vegetation of the Nile riverbanks area. Once it was clear of the area, the Jackal Guards were seen digging a hole on the ground to throw it in for disposal. "Let's go see the Lycans, at least we should inform them that they'll have their homes rebuilt." Anubis stated to Taiyou as he then led the young prince back into Memphis.

"I hope the people can continue with their lives soon. Things are difficult enough without monsters appearing and destroying things," Taiyou sighed. "But...other than here, has that Chimera been spotted in other places? Or perhaps similar incidents like this happening around here?"

"That's the problem with that. The Chimera was spotted first in the Sinai Peninsula then it had been raiding its ways through to Memphis. Some towns were devastated in the process but it seems to focus on Memphis unlike the previous raids." Anubis explained to Taiyou as the two walked into the downtown area of Memphis with the Lycans dressed in a mixture of Greek and Egyptian clothing slowly coming out of hiding.

"So you're telling us that the two headed rainbow monster there thinks it needs to do something specific here?" Issun asked Anubis incredulously, he wasn't being skeptical but rather it sounded more like he was about to burst into laughter at Anubis observation. "That's the only reasonable conclusion in an unreasonable situation." Anubis remarked as they came to see the Lycans who all had a terrified and fearful look on their faces.

"I regret to inform you that some may have lost their homes. Fear not, as your patron and Strategos it is my duty to sponsor the rebuilding of your homes and livelihoods." Anubis announced to the Lycans who then whispered and discussed with each other about their fates, some sounding hopeful others sounded rather concerned for their well being. "I have however one question I require you to answer. Were you warned of the Chimera attack?" He asked them.

Taiyou would see one of the wolves there speak up. "We were warned by our resident Seer so we prepared ourselves just in case. She's a grey wolf named Kassandra, she went to the Greek settlements south of the city to inform them of the attack but hasn't returned." Said the anthro wolf as his fellow Lycans began to discuss with each other, their voices grew louder and more audible, clearly rather worried. "What does she wear?" Anubis asked them. "She was dressed in a turquoise dress when she left earlier today." Hearing this Anubis nodded to them and turned to Taiyou whispering to his ears as if to warn him of something critical.

"Taiyou, be careful when we enter the Greek settlements, the colonists there aren't exactly what you would call… respectable. Let's go." Anubis then tapped on his shoulder to lead him out to the South of the city while gesturing for the Lycans to follow their armed escorts to rebuild the suburbs.

"When you say they're not very respectable...how bad is it?" Taiyou asked with a frown, not really liking where this was going.

"In a word… nasty." He remarked tersely.

As they rode out to the southern suburb of the city, Taiyou and Anubis found that beyond the southern walls lay a Greek town with white marble stone structure, a small shrine to Hermes in the plaza of the town and various residential houses on either side of the road.

Anubis himself seem to know the layout of the town well enough as he slowed his horse down looking around for the sight of anything or anyone out of the ordinary. He found that the Greeks were hiding in their homes and shrines out of fear for their lives. But when they saw Anubis came, they exited their homes and cheered at the sight of the jackal deity.

"Hail to thee! Hail to the guardian of Memphis! Patron of the Dead and blessed his name, Anubis!" The Greek councilman of the town shouted as his people tossed up flowers and cheers to Anubis, giving him both warm smiles and welcoming with bread and wine amphora. Taiyou however, was surgically ignored as their attention and affection was directed firmly at Anubis. However, Taiyou noticed that the statue of Hermes in the Shrine of the town had a jackal head instead of Hermes human head. It could be extrapolated that they equate the worship of Anubis with that of Hermes out of the two deities similar roles.

Taiyou remained silent as they continued through the town...though he did notice a few frowns here and there directed his way. Somehow he had a feeling this was related to why Anubis said they were...nasty.

"Who is this Lycan? He seemed rather odd with the face paint." One of the Greek men there mused looking at Taiyou, another attempted to lure him over using a wooden stick as if playing fetch. "Here boy, come. Let's play fetch boy." He tried waving the stick to catch Taiyou's attention to no avail but his facial expression rather hilarious in how he actually believed his own misplaced hypothesis. "He doesn't look at all Egyptian, let alone Persian or Greek. Is there any differences between those?" Another Greek man asked credulously looking at Taiyou with a frown on his face. "Has anyone here seen a female Lycan Seer?" Anubis asked.

"Yes we did. She came to warn us of an impending Chimera attack, the blasphemy. A she-wolf telling men like us what to do? May the gods of Olympus strike her down!" The councilman of the town stated at the top of his lungs in a rather arrogant and haughty manner. Anubis however hearing this shot a glare at his face. "What. Did. You do. To her?" He asked with each words punctuated seething with anger and frustration. "Well we did the only sensible thing us Greeks can do, tie her up on a hill and let the harpies have her flesh!" He exclaimed out without thinking about the consequences of his words.

"You what?!" Taiyou shouted in alarm. "She came to warn you of the Chimera! Why would you do something like that to her?!" he snarled.

"Pffft! You have no right to tell us Hellenes how to live, Lycan? I don't care if you are given public office by the Strategos, no beasts may command a man!" The councilman arrogantly proclaimed to Taiyou while huffing out with Anubis face palming. "I'll take your tax revenue by force then."

Taiyou glared daggers at the councilman. "Is that all this is about? Humans and not?" he snarled. "Fine then, if you think that no 'beast' can command a man then that's not a problem for me," at this point Taiyou's voice turned uncharacteristically cold...before his eyes glowed and a sheer force of will and aura was released, causing the assembled mortals to fall to a knee at the sudden pressure. "Then I command you as a god!" Taiyou declared, his voice now heavy with authority and strength.

The councilman whimpered in fear and terror when he saw Taiyou revealing himself to be a deity, the Greek man came to his knees begged for mercy with the man keeping his head bowed to the ground before Taiyou's feet and Anubis. "By the mercy of Zeus, please forgive me! My ignorance has punished me once again, please lord Anubis patron of two people judge me fairly!" He pleaded incessantly to Anubis only to have the jackal deity kicked him in his stomach, causing him to fall to the ground writhing in pain, he then received another kick causing him to roll on his back painfully with Anubis pinning down on his neck.

"Neket iadet. Malaki like you deserve worse if I have the luxury of time. You will pay your taxes, ALL of you, double the amount for the next year. You can thank your buffoon of a councilman here." He snarled menacingly to the populace as the Greek mortals cowered even more seeing Anubis when he was angry. They now realized that they were not going to have an exclusionary life anymore.

"More importantly," Taiyou said, lowering his aura so that they could actually talk straight again. "Where did you leave the woman? If we hurry, we might be able to save her! Answer me!"

"T-the hills to the west!" one of the men said in fear. "We strung her up there! The harpies come every now and then, s-so she might still be alive!" That was all Taiyou needed to hear to bolt towards that direction.

"Find yourself a physician, and perhaps a Roman lawyer if he can get here in time." Anubis stated sarcastically to the councilman before he rode off with Taiyou to the west of Memphis, they left the fertile green land of the Nile's riverbanks and entered the sandy area of Egypt. The place appeared to have arid rocky terrain with the hills and mountains being merely layers of stones stacked on top of one another.

"She must be around here somewhere. Keep your eyes on the sky, where the harpies fly that's where she would be." Anubis instructed Taiyou as he surveyed the sky above. His sensitive pointy ears perked and twitched in different directions trying to pinpoint her exact location. He soon heard the sound of fluttering wings and the flapping of feather above, followed by beastly screeches and howls of harpies. They sounded like humans but their voices were more like feral birds as they flew overhead, passing by Taiyou and Anubis.

"Are those the Harpy things they told us about?" Issun asked.

"She must be this way!" Taiyou said, running in that direction soon enough. It wasn't long before they found the female Lycan named Kassandra, tied up on top of a rock with her clothes torn by the harpies talons, leaving her naked save a few torn scraps that barely covered anything, revealing her body which was covered in scratch marks. The rock she was tied on sat on an elevated slope surrounded by other rocky formations, it was noticeably higher than the other so as to make the harpies meal easier to be found. In fact, several of them were flying around, seemingly enjoying coming closer just to claw at her before flying away, the female's pained shouts ringing through the air.

"Nek! Those harpies may toy with her but not for long!' Said Anubis as he gallop Ramiel towards the harpies with his bow Hunger of the Underworld ready. He aimed at the harpies wings and centermass, leading the shots before firing his arrows, they flew high, tearing through the wings of the harpies, some of them even hit home crippling the harpies wings as they come crashing down.

At the same time Taiyou didn't waste any time and dashed forward. Once again the world froze, before several of the Harpies fell to the ground, bodies cut in half, before sending his prayer beads flying, filling a few Harpies with holes.

The surviving harpies screeched out trying to scare Anubis and Taiyou away as they then dive bombed on Anubis and Ramiel, missing him narrowly as he drew his sword slashing them across their chest tearing them in half. The harpies then pummeled Taiyou from behind, pushing him against the rock formation as they failed to take notice of Anubis firing his arrow on their backs, dropping them instantly. "Check the girl, I'll clean up these harpies corpses." Anubis ordered Taiyou as he dismounted Ramiel.

"Are you alright? Did they hurt you badly?" Taiyou asked concernedly to Kassandra as he untied her from the ropes keeping her limbs spread out in an eagle pose. First he untied her ankles then repeat the process for her wrists. Once the ropes were free, she fell off and into his arms, barely conscious.

When Kassandra slid down on the ground, he held her in his hands gently before setting her down on her back to check her vitals, Taiyou found that indeed she was wearing turquoise Greek dress however it had suffered some wear and tear, torn and shredded to the point that she was basically naked. On her head, he found a bruise mark, presumably inflicted by the Greek mob earlier to subdue her. Or by the harpies.

Taiyou saw that Kassandra was a rather athletic female Lycan with a pair of ample breasts, rounded and pear shaped but not too large. Her slender appearance seemed to be a product of strict physical exercises. This was rather odd, Greek women were mostly confined to the domestic scenes, no way could Kassandra have such beauty and grace on her by living like other Greek women. All in all, she was...beautiful. Easily the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, and despite himself, he found himself gazing...longer than he should have honestly.

"How is she?" Anubis asked Taiyou as he collected his arrows laced with harpies blood while dragging their corpses into a pile counting the kills of the day. The jackal deity counted a flock of 8 harpies before breathing out swarms of ethereal locusts from his mouth. The locust swarm then covered the harpy carcasses and begin to devour them. Anubis then knelt down placing his hand on her neck to check her pulse then pressed his ear on her left chest before hearing heartbeat. "She's alive, just unconscious with a physician she'll live." Said Anubis.

"Glad to hear that," Taiyou sighed. "It's a good thing we got to her in time," he said, smiling warmly at her, glad they'd managed to save her. At that moment, her eyes opened a little, and the first thing Kassandra saw in her half dazed state was a handsome white lycan smiling down at her, and despite herself, she blushed a little.

She started to cough out, her body felt heavy and hard while she still had a drowsy expression on her face looking up at Taiyou and Anubis faces, her eyes starting to focus again. "Ugh...let me guess I'm stuck on the banks of the river Styx for a century to come?" She sarcastically asked, to which Anubis returned a deadpan remark to Taiyou and Issun. "She's fine." He stated tersely.

"It's not your time to meet Charon just yet." He replied to her, Kassandra grumbled and whimpered painfully. "I remember warning the Hellenes of impending danger. Should have known they were Athenian immigrants." Said Kassandra as she attempted to get back up to her feet, she noticed that her clothes were torn to shreds and opted to throw off whatever that's left of her dress leaving her completely naked. "There goes one of my best dresses, but at least I still live." She sighed out.

Taiyou gulped thickly at the sight, but managed to keep a straight face. Issun on the other hand… "Ooooooh wow wow wow! Hello there beauty! Ya just have the luckiest day in your life being rescued by a hunk of a deity! And boy are you a looker for little Chibi here cause you're like his mom!" Issun exclaimed and bounced uncontrollably at the sight of Kassandra seeing that she was attractive in every way. Possibly a mortal version of Amaterasu. He appeared now brightly red with steam puffing out of his ears while he sweat nervously at her sight.

Kassandra gave him a dry look. "And what is that supposed to be? A talking flea?"

"No he isn't," Taiyou sighed. "But he sure can be annoying like one when he lets his mouth run," he said dryly.

"Let's go, the lady needs some proper clothing." Anubis remarked annoyed by Issun's comment. Before they proceeded, Anubis first removed his purple dye cape and wrapped it around Kassandra as a piece of clothing. She was then offered to ride on Ramiel's back as a sign of good will that she took without a thought more. As she saddled on the horse's back, they began to leave the place. Only for the ground on Taiyou's feet light up.

It was then that a strange burst of light glow so bright that Taiyou was temporarily blinded by it and Anubis as well as Kassandra were stunned. Caught off guard and without an opportunity to react, Anubis and Kassandra as well as Ramiel could only cover their eyes, and when they could see again, Taiyou was gone, and the only thing in his place was Issun who'd hit the ground and was now looking around in confusion. "What the HECK just happened?" Issun blinked.

Kassandra gasped with her head facing the sky, her eyes swirled with vortex as she seem to have a spasm, or rather a vision of Taiyou as she held her cheeks with both hands. "I… I see… death, his death! By the hands of a heinous one, the unatoned, the wretched and vile pretender!" Anubis then grabbed Kassandra by her shoulders pulling her to face him directly. "Where? Tell me where!" He asked her urgently with Kassandra flailing a bit before pointing northwest, beyond the desert was none other than the pyramids of Giza complex.

[hr]

Taiyou grunted when he hit the ground. "Okay...that was unexpected," he groaned slightly, getting up and dusting himself off. "Where am I now?" he frowned, looking around. Around him there was only darkness, his innate solar power gave him some light and sense of location. He found himself inside a dusty, sandy, the room was very narrow and claustrophobic with stone wall corridors bearing no hieroglyphic writing like in most other Egyptian places.

The only guide that Taiyou himself had was the set of amphibian footprints, he followed the trail through a room filled with treasure and golden statues, idols into a dark tunnel, rendering his night vision an invaluable asset while hunting for the owner of the abnormally large frog footprints.

He soon heard the frog belching sound echoed from the deepest and darkest parts of the caves. "Can't say I think this is the smartest move, but it's the only clue I have," he sighed, before following the frog's sounds. He walked through a good few pathways before coming into a new room.

As he followed the footprints, he found the floor to become increasingly wet and the air to be humid almost marshland like. Eventually, Taiyou was attracted by the frog's sound he came closer into what appeared to be a massive swamp like area with dark murky water and lotus lily pads. The foggy mist was penetrated by the fireflies. And before his eyes the culprit, a frog wearing a strange silo like crown on his head sitting on his four legs on a lily pad looking blankly at him.

"Okay...I can tell you're no ordinary frog," Taiyou mused. "But...do you happen to know where we are, and how to get out?"

Instead of answering Taiyou, the frog grew a large grin on his face as his eyes glared at Taiyou, his fore hands twiddle their fingers as he bellowed out a loud and proud laughter. "Hoho-Hohohohohohohohoho! Finally you've come, young Sun Prince. I've been waiting for you and it seems you've come bearing the gift that I have been expecting." He maintained his grin while glaring menacingly at Taiyou.

He then belched out in a loud sonic blast that rumble the place, sending Taiyou flying into a nearby tamarisk tree, which he slammed into the trunk. "Iiiiiiiit's playtime for me. And I would enjoy spanking you, little boy. Or even better, I'll make you my playboy of the month." The frog stated perversely as he hopped towards Taiyou, shaking the ground that he was standing on, almost like he was making earthquake.

Taiyou was quick to recover, getting back on his feet. "I don't know who you are, but that was a mistake," he glared, right as a tree appeared under the frog, sending it flying back and into a nearby rock. Not wasting any time, Taiyou summoned his Divine Instruments, this time using his rosary and his glaive, sending beads flying at the frog.

"A mistake you say? Ironic seeing it applies the same way to you!" The frog then took a deep breath before bellowing out at Taiyou, blowing him back with a gust like breath, followed by a thousand needles like objects flying at him. The tips of those needles appeared to have a sickly green glow on them, informing him that they were most likely poisons.

Taiyou reacted quickly, using Galestorm to blow the needles back, and at the same time, using Veil of Mist to slow time, allowing him to dash forward, and struck the frog several times with his glaive, sending it tumbling back, followed by a trio of Cherry Bombs. "Begone!"

Being struck simultaneously by the Glaive, Cherry Bombs and Galestorm backfiring his poison needles, he grunted and huffed out in pain as he was impaled in multiple areas by the needles and blew into the air by the Cherry Bombs. He fell down splashing into the water where he swam around underneath Taiyou. Taking advantage of Taiyou not looking at his direction, Kek leapt into the air and proceeded to land a kick on Taiyou's chest, he repeated the process of bicycle kicking at Taiyou pushing him backward before leaping off to a nearby lily pad.

"What's the matter? Not expecting a serious fight from a frog like moi? What? You think it's like the Moon Tribe frogs dancing around bunny bakery?" the demonic looking frog chuckled and cackled before Taiyou as he let out his tongue slapping Taiyou repeatedly almost just for the fun of seeing it. "Why hitting yourself? Why hitting yourself? Why hitting yourself?" The frog laughed.

The last lash however was stopped short when Taiyou caught it. "You talk too much," Taiyou snarled, before using Thunderbolt right as he let go, causing the tongue to be electrocuted, and with it, the frog, causing it to well...dance. However, Taiyou didn't bother enjoying the comical sight as he once again used Veil of Mist, followed up with a set of Power Slash brushes, and when time resumed, the frog was cut apart, falling to the ground in pieces. "Rest in peace."

But something was not right to Taiyou, despite seemingly cutting down his foe, the sight of misty marshland scenery didn't dissipate rather it stay virtually the same and the place appeared to be so dark that he can't quite find his way out of the place. That was when he heard the sound of chunks of meat crawling on the ground, which compelled him to observe what was happening.

He saw that the demon frog's body parts were reanimating in fact, pieces like arms and legs as well as bits of flesh slowly pulled themselves together, reassembling into his body as the amphibian rose up from the ground that was still wet with his blood. He then glared at Taiyou wiping his lips while the slash patterns began to heal and disappeared from sight as if nothing had happened to him.

"Foolish boy. You don't know who I am now don't you? I am Kek, God of Darkness, Primordial creator of the World. Or should I say, one of many." He grinned to Taiyou as he began to appear much more regal, his jewelry, henna tattoos and Was Scepter formed in his hands but this scepter appeared to have the head of a snake with its length being made of an unknown material that was black as night.

Taiyou frowned. "Never heard of you, not even when I went through the library before coming here," he said. "I don't know why you attacked me, but as long as you keep doing so I'll keep fighting back!" and with that he readied his Glaive again.

"Oh do I have some nasty surprises for you to worry about, boy." He taunted Taiyou as he then slammed his scepter's hilt on the ground creating swirling water vortex under Taiyou's feet that kept him locked in place unable to move.

Taiyou growled and countered with the Waterspout brush, sending a jet of water at Kek, hoping to break the toad's concentration, or if need be, use Fireburst to vaporize the water...even if it might harm him a bit too.

Kek huffed out cockily, seeing as if he was able to control the tide of battle as he then snapped his fingers causing the jet of water to suddenly stop in place. He then struck the jet of water with his cobra scepter causing the jet of water to morph into countless dark cobras. He then balled his fist causing the water to drain revealing Taiyou completely drenched while the cobras hissed and snapped at the ground near him as if to intimidate the white wolf.

Taiyou spat out some water, but quickly went back on the offensive, using his rosary to capture several of the snake, before stabbing them through the head with his glaive. The remaining serpents hissed and slither around Taiyou trying to get away from him or bite him in retaliation. One of them lunged forward snapping at his clothes tearing off some bits of fabric only to be hit on the head by his Glaive.

Kek sat back and watch as Taiyou fought off the irritated serpents. Before long, all of the serpents were killed, Taiyou having a few scratches on him, with some parts of his clothes missing, but other than that he was still alright. Not even slowed, he charged forward at Kek, firing his rosary in a barrage of shots.

Kek then bent himself backwards taking in a deep breath as he timed Taiyou's charge towards him before arching his inflated stomach forward like an airbag slamming into the wolf's face, sending him flying backwards. "All too easy." Said Kek as he then began to grow larger in size with his Was Scepter glowing brighter.

Taiyo grit his teeth, and gathered his beads, this time firing them all at once. However, Kek countered with a powerful blast of magic from his Scepter, destroying the beads completely, the blast slamming into Taiyou causing him to shout in pain as he was blown back, his clothing becoming more and more damaged, while wounds were present on his body from the sheer force of the attack. Despite that, he still got up, the look in his eyes making it clear he wasn't giving up.

Kek would then opened his mouth before Taiyou with the maw being an all encompassing and perhaps even more terrifying one than Taiyou would like to see, the frog would then fired off his tongue at Taiyou, which split into multiple tendrils.

Taiyou was surprised, and on reflex tried to counter with his glaive, but his strike missed, and the tendrils soon wrapped around him, catching his arms, legs, and torso, yanking him towards Kek's mouth. Taiyou growled and tried to resist, struggling against the tendrils and pulling, his muscles straining against them.

However, they suddenly started to expand like goo, covering more parts of his body, and on top of that, he felt a burning feeling as the tendrils were releasing a mix of acid and poison, causing him to howl in pain, while more parts of his clothes were melted off as the sticky tendrils spread, leaving him in damaged robes, with parts of his pants missing, while his sleeves were gone, and part of his right chest was exposed. The pain breaking his focus, he was slowly but surely being pulled towards Kek's mouth, and as he got closer, the tendrils gave a final pull, and he was pulled in completely, Kek shutting his mouth over the wolf, trapping him inside.

Taiyou felt the tendrils pulled him back, the slimy texture covering him, while he couldn't see much, the acid still causing him pain, before with a wet squish, he was dumped on the ground, the tentacles letting him go for some reason. Groaning, he got up and looked around, finding himself inside...well...the insides of the frog, even if it was abnormally large. It was cavernous with various growths, but it was very much fleshy, slimy, and stank a bit, evident by how he found his footing a little uneven due to how the ground shifted.

"Comfortable in there? Hohohohohohoho. Trust me this is only the beginning of something much much worse." Kek chuckled as he patted his amphibian stomach causing Taiyou to bounce along inside of his innards. He then began to chant an ancient incantation. One that Taiyou had no idea of what it meant as the language was beyond what he could hope to understand.

He soon got his answer when before him, a form appeared, taking the form of an anthro frog with a scrawny sickly look, a hunched back with his body having spotty molds bearing a sickly green color. On his head he had a crown made of a human skull with a decorative cobra head motif protruding out from the mouth. Whatever clothing he had, it seemed torn, shredded and bore none of the regality of a Pharaoh or royal court officials. But the most disturbing feature of all was the tongue in his mouth being a literal sentient snake slithering out and facing Taiyou.

"How are you here?" Taiyou glared, readying his glaive. He may not be in top shape, and he sure didn't look like it, but he wasn't about to make it easy for the frog.

"This is just a projection of me, but at the same time, it is me," Kek chuckled. "I'm in control here, and if you want to escape, you have to beat me!" he smirked.

"Fine by me," Taiyou snarled, tensing. His footing was a bit off, but he was pretty sure he could still move quickly. With that, he surged forward, aiming to stab the frog through, but frog avoided the stab, and knocked his glaive away with his scepter which appeared in his hand.

"Ah ah ah, this is my body, and I'm the one with the advantage," he chuckled, before hitting Taiyou in the chest with a blast of energy, knocking him into the wall. He rebounded off the wall, but the growth that was present where he'd been knocked into burst...and rained acid on him, causing the wolf to howl in pain, scrambling to his feet, but he was forced to rip off the top part of his outfit which soon dissolved on the ground.

Taiyou glared and activated his Celestial Brush, aiming to attack Kek with his techniques...but right as the world froze, Kek released a burst of energy, which canceled out the brush and ran into Taiyou, causing him to howl in pain as the dark energy cut off his own flow of energy for a moment, forcing him to a knee, using his Glaive as support.

"You should have known better than to test me boy." Kek stated with a taunting tone before he then summoned in his hand what appeared to be a dark boney looking Khopesh sword. It appeared to have the hilt looking like a cobra's head with the maw opening and the blade protruding out like the tongue. The sword itself curved like a farmer's sickle with the blades itself radiate dark power with each and every glow of Necromantic fire from the blade, Taiyou saw the silhouette of a skull flying in the air. Warning him that his opponent was not playing anymore.

Taiyou grit his teeth, and got to his feet again, holding his sword at the ready. He was in pain, he was weakened, and really...he knew he didn't have all that strong a chance of winning. But even so, he wouldn't give up, and with that in mind, he charged forward, and began fighting in a sword duel with Kek.

The blades flashed as they clashed, the two fighting for dominance, but as it was, Kek was clearly toying with him, easily deflecting blows and landing heavy ones against Taiyou even as the wolf blocked them with his glaive. Taiyou growled and countered with his own set of blows, even managing to push Kek back a little, but the frog soon countered with a strong kick, sending him skidding back.

"I think I've played around quite enough," Kek chuckled, readying the khopesh, which glowed with an eerie aura. "So let's skip to my favorite part, winning!" he laughed, before launching wave after wave of dark energy using the sword. Taiyou saw it coming and blocked with his glaive, getting pushed back, but he stood his ground.

Seeing the wolf able to endure so far, Kek laughed further, and turned the waves into barrages of slashes, Taiyou doing his best to block, but several strikes got past his defense, slashing into his skin, and tearing his remaining clothing further.

The brunt was blocked by his glaive to which he soon charged forward, aiming another strike, but Kek just chuckled, and lashed out with a darkness covered slash, meeting the glaive head on...and with a snap, the glaive was cut in two, the metal no longer able to handle the punishment anymore, and allowing Kek to slash Taiyou across the chest, sending him flying into a nearby pool.

Taiyou's painful howls were heard as he quickly pulled himself out of the pool, which was steaming with acid, parts of his fur singed, and his clothes reduced to a loincloth. The wolf was practically out of strength as he shakily got up, but his defiant glare persisted.

"You of all people should know the old saying 'Bite more than you can chew'. And now you're about to learn its meaning in painful reality." Said Kek as he grinned at Taiyou. He then had his Khopesh blade evaporated into the air like dark mist dust and smoke. Taiyou then saw that Kek began to melt into the ground while maintaining his grin at Taiyou before he left the sun prince be, however Taiyou knew that he wasn't left alone for real.

True enough, the area began to shake, before a veritable flood of black goop flowed from the walls, the wolf barely being able to respond before he was swept away in it. He gasped for breath as he fought to stay aloft, while a familiar burning feeling was present. To make it worse, he felt the liquid almost latch on to him, trying to pull him down into the goop.

He struggled valiantly, but was eventually pulled down into the liquid, fighting to get to the surface as he was suffocating inside. The more he fought the more the goop pulled, and what felt like tentacles started to grab hold of his limbs and torso, keeping him down. He felt himself start to black out as oxygen was running out, but before he did, the liquid seemed to drain, before soon disappearing, leaving a half drowned wolf, completely naked as what little of his clothes remained had been melted off, while his limbs were trapped in a series of tentacles that held him spread out and suspended as he panted for breath.

Before Taiyou's eyes, he saw a massive unblinking amphibian eye staring back at him before blinking, then underneath the eye was a massive jaw with teeth sharp as knives with the voice of Kek emitting from the mouth taunting Taiyou further. "Getting sleepy there? Gooooood. This could be a permanent slumber for you. But don't worry, just imagine this is the reverse of your own birth. It'll look less painful." The mouth chuckled sinisterly. "Let's spice things up a bit, shall we?" Kek taunted Taiyou further.

He then summoned a collection of tendrils each one sporting a rather phallic tip as they then slithered over to Taiyou's body, some of them poked at his anal passage before snugging into the buttocks crevice and grind their length against Taiyou's tail hole.

Another opened its phallic tip into a hungry mouth as it snaked its way up Taiyou's genitals before wrapping around Taiyou's rod. It then proceeded to take in Taiyou's rod and proceeded to suckle it. The one on his tail hole now took the opportunity penetrating his rear coursing through his tunnel and grind while the eye of Kek watched the raunchy scene. "Ohohohohohoho! Hohohohohohoho! You have no idea how hard my erection has become watching this scene." Kek giggled lewdly to Taiyou while the wolf was being raped, penetrated, defiled and plundered.

Taiyou growled and howled at the penetration, glaring angrily at Kek, muscles struggling to get free again, but all that got him was more tentacles around his limbs, and a harder pull to keep him spread. He would have said something, but when he opened his mouth, one of the tentacles lashed out and stuffed itself down his muzzle, drawing a choked gasp.

Time started to fly as the rape continued on Taiyou with the tentacles forcing themselves further down into Taiyou's body, Taiyou let out a choked howl as he felt his anus was being stretched to its maximum size, same for his genitals which now throbbed to its full mast and size while he was being suckled by the hungry tendril. At the same time he felt Kek's dark energy flowing through him, weakening him and keeping him helpless to stop the frog from having his fun.

But while Kek was having his fun, he heard the sound of Anubis aggressive growl and snarl outside, followed by the muffled echo of Anubis sword clashing with his minions and the plucking string of bows and arrows followed by the sound of corpses dropping to the ground with a thud.

"Hmmmph. Looks like I can't enjoy my fun for much longer, I guess we can pick this up when we have some more private times… but before I leave, I will need a little something from you." Kek grinned sinisterly to Taiyou as the tendrils retracted from the wolf's body, Taiyou gasping when he could finally breathe properly again.

Kek would then begin a process of spitting Taiyou out of his mouth, throwing the wolf rolling on the floor with the tongue rolled out like a large wet carpet before retracting it into his mouth before the toad huffed out cracking his neck and hands. Kek would then pull out of his dark pouch a large glowing spherical object, it was metallic in appearance but glow a radiant bright like the sun itself.

The serpent scepter in Kek's hand at that moment began to demonstrate its bizarre animate ability with its maw opened wide and its fangs bared like sharp knives looking at Taiyou's face. Kek then mounted the sphere in the maw of the staff, the glow was amplified ten fold as Taiyou saw a river of energy flow beaming from the sphere down to his chest. It pierced his flesh and sting like knives as he felt his body tormented, froze up by the strike.

Taiyou howled in pain as he felt the sphere take something from him piece by piece, his energy draining, while more streams of energy pierced his limbs, the pain making him unable to do anything but shout in pain and agony.

He then saw that the flow of energy was followed by a stream of dark ink flowing into the sphere of Kek while he simply stood still and let his Brush techniques be stolen. Outside of the Pyramid, Anubis was seen slashing and impaling various wild predators that suddenly came into the Giza Pyramid areas. He had already stained his blade with the blood of spotted hyenas, now he was kicking up sand into the face of a cobra before slashing the serpent's head into half.

"Nek! Whoever's controlling these beasts must have had connections with that bastard of a kingslayer!" Anubis growls viciously as he kicked the corpse of a hyena out of the way before climbing into the entrance of the pyramid with Kassandra following him closely.

"Boy! Boy! Where are you?" Anubis called out to Taiyou, his voice echoed through the darkness of the pyramid. In his hand, Anubis held a torch to light the way for Kassandra, but for Anubis, he can see something that naked eyes could not. The world before his glowing cyan eyes was a deep dark navy blue void with outlines of walls being rendered as gold light outlines. On the floor he saw a blue mana line glowing faintly guiding him down to the inner sanctum.

With Anubis closing in, Kek grumbled in frustration, knowing that he no longer had time to finish his work on Taiyou. He held his scepter and sphere up vertically and left Taiyou laying on the ground exhausted from the draining process.

"Well looks like fun's over. Good bye for now little sunspot, until next time." Kek gloated before hopping away into the darkness. The scenery for Taiyou had changed, the dark murky primordial swamp was gone, replaced by the sight of a sandy dark burial chamber, and before long, even that faded from his view as he blacked out, markings fading.

"Boy! Are you down there? I'm coming now, hang on!" Anubis called out to Taiyou as he descended the narrow corridors down to the chamber, finding Taiyou on the ground exhausted, drained, and unconscious, the wolf so badly weakened that his Divine Markings were missing, "Nek! I'm too late." He grumbled out in a gruff tone as he checked Taiyou's pulse and heartbeat. "Still alive, just barely but he'll live." He noted before he picked up Taiyou gently and placed him on his back to carry.


	2. Chapter 2: Adaptation

Chapter 2: Adaptation

With Taiyou blacked out for most of the journey back to Memphis, he didn't know what had transpired while he was out cold. Once his consciousness returned to him, he found himself bedridden, blanketed by a bedsheet with a wet towel folded on his head. The voice of Anubis can be heard echoing from downstairs as he appeared to be talking to someone. "His physical health is recovering greatly lord Anubis. For the time being let him rest and recuperate, I've done the best I can." Said the physician as Anubis paced back and forth in the living room.

"I can understand that, but what I can't be assured of is what had transpired there and what happened to him. All I know is that he lost most of divine markings like his power was stolen." Anubis remarked and mused cautiously before sitting down on his chair, frowning and rubbing his temple.

"Anything else I need to bear in mind?" He asked her, with the physician nodded to him as she handed him a papyrus scroll, a list of things he needs to keep in mind. "Let's see, soup, broth, rice and lettuce and vegetables. Basically healthy diet to speed up recovery." He read the list sarcastically. "This is all I can do my lord, perhaps you should ask for help from the other deities. For now, goodbye and good day to you my lord." She then left the estate and Anubis sighed out before walking upstairs to check on Taiyou.

Taiyou for his part felt...weak...very weak. Groaning a little, he tried to get up till he was sitting on the bed, but just that already made him feel very tired. "What...happened?" he groaned, his mind still a bit jumbled.

"You tell me." Anubis replied sarcastically. He sat down next to Taiyou with his legs folded and stacked. "When I found you in the pyramid, you were nearly a goner. Your divine marks are gone, your power… stolen. The doctor took care of you as much as she could. But the rest is up to you to recover slowly."

Taiyou looked down at himself blearily, and realized that yes, he didn't feel a LOT of his powers anymore. He still felt some of it...but it was only a fraction of what he used to have. Much to his horror, his divine markings were not as bright or elaborate as before. Most of the artistic curves of the divine markings were faded shades of red, almost nonexistent. Laying back down again, he tried to remember, think back about what happened. "There was...a frog…" he started slowly. "He...called himself...Kek, I think?"

Anubis was stunned hearing the name, he paused and felt frozen in place hearing such a bone chilling name he hunched forward at Taiyou asking him again. "What did you say? His name...is...Kek?" Anubis asked stuttering as he felt the world has become a cold and dark void of emptiness. "Then the traitor, the heretic of the disgraced Ogdoad is still alive." Anubis gulped thickly feeling the frightening chill of evil taking hold of him.

"I'm...guessing he's a BIG deal?" Taiyou said slowly. "How big are we talking?"

"He was one of the Primordial, a deity who forged the Earth with others like him. But he was disgraced, cast out when Kronos was overthrown by Zeus." Anubis sighed out and beginning to feel anxious as he went to the nearby hexagonal bookshelf and pulled out a papyrus scroll from one of the hexagonal shelves.

He then sat down next to Taiyou and rolled out the scroll written in hieroglyphics and hieratic writing. "In the dawn of time, the Ogdoad, Primordial circles forged the heavens and earth. The stars and celestial bodies were theirs, all mortal life on Earth were their toys. Until Zeus disemboweled Kronos. Kek, the old Ogdoad frog deity grew hateful of the vengeance, sworn he would destroy all that the Primordials had created and was cast out." He read the scroll ominously to Taiyou, for long he had lived in an assumption that a deity like Kek would not survive without worship or reverence from mortals. But he was here, having tormented and beaten Taiyou.

"Well...he definitely lives up to his title," Taiyou chuckled weakly. "He...got me real good, I admit," he sighed. "And a bit more than that…"

Anubis placed his palm on Taiyou's forehead rubbing gently and shushed at him. "Save your strength boy. I'll go get you something to defend yourself with, but for the time being, stay at home and recover." Anubis instructed Taiyou, just as both looked at a nearby table...where what was left of his Glaive had been placed there, before standing up and grabbed his bag of coins from a safe dug into the walls of his estate. As Anubis counted his coins, Kassandra came into the bedroom to see Taiyou and saw him bed ridden like a child with Anubis being an overprotective parent. "I reckon he will live?" Kassandra asked tersely to Anubis who nodded to her but with a frown on his face.

"He will as long as he doesn't put himself into further harms way. I'll be back. Issun follow me." Anubis commanded sternly as he walked down stairs with Issun literally riding on his coat tail as Anubis exited the estate. Taiyou and Kassandra were now left alone in the room, the she wolf rather interested in getting to know the white wolf...and Taiyou himself was rather curious about her.

Kassandra first took the wet towel off of Taiyou's forehead and replaced it with a new towel that the slaves had steamed for her. She then placed the new folded towel on Taiyou's head. "There, so you can feel like mother's favorite." Kassandra said sarcastically and dryly.

"Do you always talk like that or is this special treatment?" Taiyou couldn't help but chuckle a bit tiredly. Despite the dry and sarcastic tone, he didn't feel any real heat from her words.

"Laconic." She replied to him, causing him to blink for a moment hearing the word and find it rather odd why she spoke it so tersely. "Beg your pardon?" He asked her. "Laconic, speak as much with as few as possible." Kassandra explained to him, it was then that his mind began to click. Her physique, her way with words, and her witty dry humor all led back to one point of origin. "Sparta? Are you from Sparta?" He asked her notably excited tone, to which Kassandra nodded to him. "Yes. They said that I am typical of Spartan women, the irony." She remarked dryly and sarcastically.

"Sorry, it's just that when you read about the various cultures, when it comes to warriors, the Spartans are among the most notable if not THE most notable warrior races," Taiyou said a little sheepishly at the slight outburst.

"Well your record keepers must have missed...several others who beat Sparta." Replied Kassandra with a huff as she poured him a goblet of Egyptian barley beer before handing it to Taiyou. The barley beer seems to have a strong alcohol scent to it with a very thick tannish yellow barley texture to it. "Here, Anubis said you should take at least one goblet of this to recover."

"Thank you," Taiyou said with a grateful smile, taking a few sips. "A little stronger than what I like, but it's pretty good," he mused. "So...I don't believe we ever properly introduced ourselves," he noted. "My name is Taiyou. The people said you're Kassandra, right?"

She nodded to him and sighed out as she sat down. "That's my name. Kassandra, the Seer. To the Lycans I am their Delphi Oracle. But to the Greeks I am a pariah for the only thing they hear from my tongue is omens of doom and gloom." Said Kassandra with a long drawn out sigh showing how she was exhausted and tired by the title.

"But that means you can warn people of danger and help them avoid it," Taiyou said. "They're the ones who are wrong to take it out on you. You're just trying to help."

"Trust me if you know about Cassandra of Troy you would how others heed my omens." She sarcastically remarked to him letting out a frown knowing that she was consistently turned down by the Greeks.

"The people in Memphis seemed to listen to you though," Taiyou pointed out. "And yes, I'd heard about her, and yet you're still trying to warn people. Honestly, I think that's really admirable," he said with a soft smile.

"Admirable?" She asked with a frown on her face looking at Taiyou's face intensely. "In the Hellenic World, this… admirable act earns the scorn of others. It is as if you are cursed by the Gods to have a curse disguised as a gift. To see the future but to have no one believe you." She sighed out feeling tired by the constant reminder of her fate. "What about you? Where are you from? You don't look Baktrian or Indian to me?" She asked him about himself for the first time, perhaps to keep her from thinking about her painful life.

"That's because I'm from beyond the sea. I'm from a land called Nippon," Taiyou said, following along as he realized he might have said something...unintentionally insensitive. "It lies to the East, though I don't think many know about it here."

Hearing this caused Kassandra to jump hearing the information. It was rather bizarre for her a Greek woman to hear about a land beyond what was known by Alexander. "N-Ni… Nippeia? Never heard of it. It's impossible to have more land beyond Oceanus's eastern edge, is it?" She asked him hesitantly feeling confused.

Taiyou chuckled a little. "Nippon," he corrected. "And yes, we exist. I'm not surprised you don't know of it. We aren't really all that active in this part of the world. We mostly keep to our region, in the continent of Asia," he said, before pointing at a nearby drawer. "Could you please take out the map in that drawer. It's the map I used to travel here."

Kassandra being curious came over to the drawer Taiyou was pointing at before opening it picking out a map that she had never seen before. From what she could make of it, Nippon was an island country, a land far beyond the land of India. The map was rather simple in cartographer sense, a barebone map drawn with some notes of areas such as the general areas of mountain ranges, settlements and temples. "Is this the place you come from? You are even more exotic as an Oriental than the Persians." Kassandra commented to him with great curiosity.

"I'm not too surprised," Taiyou chuckled. "And yes, that's the land I come from. I came here to broaden my horizons, but as you can see...there were some...unfortunate circumstances…" he said, his voice becoming a little glum, but even then he kept up the smile.

Kassandra nodded to him slowly knowing that there was much to learn from him, and he in turn had much to learn from her so she and him began to talk the day away,

[hr]

Meanwhile, out on the streets of Memphis, Issun was bouncing behind Anubis as a green flea like creature that caught the attention and curiosity of the people in town. They watched on as their deity and protector walk on. "He should be around here somewhere." Said Anubis as he came to a ruins by Memphis riverbank, this was once a temple that had apparently seen its ground eroded by river flooding. "Who are you looking for dog guy? Someone you know perhaps?" Issun asked curiously as bounced up on Anubis's shoulders. "A merchant, one of dubious reputations but has plenty of connections." Said Anubis.

"So one of those types you don't usually see normal people deal with? Meh, could be interesting," Issun said. "Now more importantly, how is this gonna help Chibi? He's down to a fraction of his power after that Kek guy stole 12 of the Brush Techniques."

"Simple, he's the only one dishonest enough to sell me 'Legendary' weapons. Pilfered stuff of legends from plundered tombs or stolen from somebody. As a customer, I have the right to pry anything I want from him." the jackal deity replied as he went into the ruins of the Egyptian temple and its toppled over columns.

They soon came across a boy sitting on the ground with his camel resting behind him. The boy appeared to be a dark brown Nubian wandering boy. A merchant apparently as Issun can see that the boy had a blanket on the ground with numerous weapons on display. Halberds, bows, axes, swords, maces, spears, scepters. Weapons of all sorts and multitudes each one bearing highly elaborate decorations and carving. The materials range from gold of Egyptian weaponry, to conventional bronze or copper to more expensive iron and steel weapons.

"Ah if it isn't the patron of the Dead? How can I help you so that my journey to the Duat may be smoother?" The boy chuckled to Anubis and laid back against his camel in a lazy and chill out manner. "Don't you have somewhere else to go Reda? Home and parents?" Anubis asked him disappointingly and sighed out, seemingly as if the two had been through conversations like this before. "Home? I have none but the ground I choose to sell my goods. Parents? They're all dreams, memories and whispers of the past." He replied casually to Anubis. "So interested in anything?" He asked.

Anubis nodded to him and bent down inspecting the weapons Reda had on display, he saw that the majority of his ware were obviously taken from somewhere sacred and sold to fence off the goods, the boy's act of friendliness and coy attitude was probably to hide the guilt. "Got any special swords for today?" Anubis asked while picking up one of the bows there and inspected the string, the sturdiness and recurves capability were rather impressive, possibly a Parthian bow. "Yes yes I do. There is one that was found on the corpses of dead thieves, my contact in Canaan found them attempting to break into a tomb but killed by the booby traps there while smuggling the sword out."

Reda then handed Anubis a golden sword, a short stabbing sword made in the style of Greek Xiphos sword but with Egyptian hieroglyphic writing on the blade and the hilt bear the image of a canine, possibly Anubis jackal head oddly enough.

Seeing the sword Anubis began to grow rather troubled by the discovery as he asked Reda. "Pretty expensive even by your standards, Reda?" to which Reda nodded. "It is. You have no idea how much trouble it is for me carrying this sword around, too much suspicion and death threats abound. For you my patron to the Afterlife, I'll give you a discount."

"Generous but…" He asked prying, knowing full well that Reda might have a string attached to the deal. "But I expect immunity from the laws when I am caught." Anubis huffed out to Reda as he stood up holding the blade, he swung it around checking if the slashes were as good as the stab. "Won't work." He tersely replied to Reda to which the boy felt his heart sink but laughed it off to hide the shame.

"Perhaps a bit much. But I can promise you this, perhaps I can sell you my wares at half the price… most of the time?" He coyly look up at Anubis expecting an answer or at least an approval. He then saw Anubis tossed down a bag of silver to his feet. "Take an honest job Reda. A leash on your neck at such a young age is the last thing I want to see. Less so to see you dragged away from Egypt." Anubis sighed out as Reda handed him a scabbard to sheath the sword in. "Consider it done." Reda smugly grin at Anubis as Anubis then tied the sword around his waist.

"So….that kid's questionable future aside, you sure that's gonna be any good? I know Chibi's Divine Instruments were made in the image of the ones Ammy and her brothers used, but they were still Divine Instruments, and that Kek guy destroyed two of them," Issun checked. "I don't think some random sword is gonna cut it."

"Who is the talking flea there?" Reda asked stunned noticing Issun for the first time and the boy did not take the Poncle appearance well. "An Envoy of the Sun. A stunning one in a small package." Anubis remarked sarcastically to Reda before leaving the boy be and walk home with Issun. "He lost two divine instruments. One I can replace but the other it will take time." Said Anubis sternly to Issun they returned to the estate.

"My question still stands. Is that sword gonna be good enough to replace the Glaive Chibi lost?" Issun repeated.

Anubis then drew the sword and before Issun's very eyes, he saw the blade suddenly set ablaze in Anubis grip alone. Once Anubis swung the blade in practice, Issun saw embers of flame flew around and the visage of a wolf howling in the flame can be seen as it dash away into the scenery of an endless field of reeds. "Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"...yep, no more questions from me," Issun blinked.

Once Anubis returned to the estate, he came upstairs to find Kassandra and Taiyou having been talking to one another for presumably an hour and a half at this point as he stood in the doorway. From what he could tell, they seemed to be talking rather animatedly...and they seemed to be having fun even despite the slight tired look in Taiyou's eyes. "Struck by Eros's arrows?" Anubis asked sarcastically, to which Kassandra shook her head after the initial shock of hearing his deep baritone.

"Oh no not yet. Even when we do, Aphrodite might interfere with our supposed romance." She remarked sarcastically to Anubis. "Where were you?" She asked him. "For this" He held the golden sword in both hands, presenting it to her and Taiyou before giving it to the white wolf. Once in his hands, Taiyou felt the burning heat of the sun and the radiant glow emitted from the blade as if he was holding his Divine Instrument once again. And when he pulled out the sword, he found the golden blade to be set ablaze in his grasp, a similar phenomenon to when Anubis held it suggesting only deities can utilize the blade's magical properties.

"This sword...where did you find it?" Taiyou asked in surprise. "It's not something just anyone could make...or find…"

"Bought it off a merchant." Anubis remarked tersely with a shrug, seeing that Taiyou would not believe what Anubis had said due to how preposterous it was. "I was feeling sympathetic to the merchant boy, hate to see him with a leash on his neck one of these days." He scratched his head finding that Taiyou would find it hard to believe what had transpired without actually being there with Anubis.

"Well...I honestly don't know what to say about that, but thanks. At least with this I'll have something other than my Reflector to fight with," Taiyou said gratefully. "If anything, I'd love to try this out," he said, getting out of bed...but right as he did, he felt dizzy, and nearly fell over...if not for Kassandra catching him on reflex, while he also used the sword to help prop himself up.

At the realization of the sudden proximity, both blushed a little...which wasn't helped by the fact Taiyou was dressed in a simple loincloth, and Kassandra was dressed in a simple Egyptian skirt wrapped around her waist and covered her thighs. On her chest she had cloth bras wrapped around her for modesty purpose. She appeared dressed like an Egyptian woman for the most part only lacking the wig and additional jewelries. The two gulped before Taiyou quickly got back to bed. "M-maybe I need a bit more rest," he said quickly. "Thanks for that, Kassandra," he said.

"I-it was nothing," she said quickly, her tone lacking the usual sarcasm as she looked away.

"You should get some rest Kassandra, as for you boy… you'll need to train, fast." The jackal deity emphasized to Taiyou as he crossed his arms looking at the boy.

"I know. Just cause I can use a sword doesn't mean I can use ANY sword without some training first," Taiyou nodded.

Anubis then helped Taiyou walk downstairs first to the dining room where the boy can sit down by the table. Anubis then handed Taiyou a soup bowl with a wooden spoon for him to eat with. "Here you go, try having some hot soup. I need to speak to you about some important things boy. I am supposed to present you to the Pharaoh and I shall in due time. But for now, I need to find out where did Kek go as finding him equals finding your stolen power."

Taiyou drank a bit of the soup, enjoying the flavor, before nodding. "Right, we do need to find him. My powers aside, there's no telling what he could do with them in hand," Taiyou agreed. "Though...what is this about needing to present me to the Pharaoh?" Taiyou asked...before he remembered something. "Wait...Pharaoh? Do you mean Ra?"

Anubis nodded to Taiyou as he then took his own bowl of soup to eat with Taiyou. "That's right. Ra, the sun god and divine head of the Pantheon. My great-great-grandfather himself. He's requested to meet you once you arrive in land. But I fear that this may have to be delayed. What's more important is that I am requested by my brother Horus to meet you as well. He's roughly in your age group." Anubis finished as he took a sip of the soup.

"Roughly in my age group?" Taiyou asked flatly. "I doubt most of the know deities are in my age group considering I haven't even started to live a single mortal lifetime...let alone however long all of you have been around…"

"Not all of them." Anubis remarked. "In fact I can only count Horus being in the same group as you. He's 30 this year and a hopeful for the throne of Egypt." Said Anubis as took another sip of his soup and spoke softly to Taiyou. "Horus I have to say is a bit eccentric and extroverted. He likes to hang around mortals and the youths. A crown prince with a lot of energy and excitable for all things new and trendy. Ra, he's eccentric and old fashioned." Said Anubis as he finished his bowl of soup.

"Huh...for some reason I thought most gods around here were older than that," Taiyou blinked.

"Well you wouldn't be wrong. I'm 40 years old now, considered young by my Pantheon. But already I act and think like a mortal in their midlife crisis." Anubis sighed out as he stretched himself up from the table after the meal. "First thing first, wherever Kek goes, he will have to head to one of the two directions. North or South, I think he would go south first since it's more conservative and quiet there. Northward though, he'll be in trouble with everyone." Said Anubis as he stroked his chin in thought.

"So we'll look for any strange incidents down South then," Taiyou mused, helping himself to another bowl.

Anubis nodded to Taiyou. "That's right. But further down south of the Nile are more cities of traditional Egyptian and conservatives. Plenty of places for Kek to hide and I don't know what he wants from the places." the jackal deity growled a bit as he rubbed his temple trying to figure out where could Kek possibly hide south of the Nile.

"That's assuming he has an actual reason too all the time. For all we know he might either just enjoy causing chaos, or he's causing it to cover his tracks," Taiyou frowned.

"That's the problem of it. Get some rest, I'll send the words to your parents. Guardian obligation." Anubis stated to Taiyou with a sigh and yawn as he went upstairs to take a quill and a papyrus scroll. He sat down by a wooden desk and begin to write down a letter to Ammy and Kaito.

Αγαπητέ Amaterasu,

Επιφανής μητέρα όλων κάτω από τον ήλιο, το παιδί σας δέχτηκε επίθεση από το ΚΕΚ ο βάτραχος του κακού. Είναι σε κρίσιμη κατάσταση, αλλά θα επιβιώσει. Από αυτό το γράψιμο, έχω ζητήσει από το γιατρό να έχουν την τάση να τις πληγές του και τις συνθήκες υγιεινής. Ωστόσο, από ό, τι μπορώ να πω, ό, τι έκανε ο Kek σε αυτόν, είχε ως αποτέλεσμα να κλαπεί οι δυνάμεις του. Το κλεμμένο εξουσία πρέπει να ανακτηθεί και πρέπει να φύγουν από την Αίγυπτο για να κυνηγήσει Κεκ να ανακτήσει ένα κομμάτι σε έναν χρόνο.

Με φιλικούς χαιρετισμούς, Anubis Δικαστής του Duat, Φύλακας του Elysium και Aaru.

With the letter written in hieroglyphic symbols, Anubis then rolled the papyrus letter up and took a gold seal to it then stamped the seal with an Eye of Horus to mark it as an official letter written by members of the state during times of crisis. He then whistled into the sky before tapping his foot on the ground, soon enough a gold blur speed by before skirting to a halt on his balcony.

The messenger himself appeared as any Greek would imagine him to be, a young Greek man with curly blonde hair wearing a winged bronze helmet on his head with a pair of winged sandals. In his hand was the signature Rod of Ascelpius, a winged staff with two serpents intertwined with one another.

"So what's ya got? Express delivery? Beyond continental speedy delivery? Message for love interests that doesn't start with the letter alpha? What is it? What is it?" Said Hermes, the wildly messenger of the Gods in a motor mouth manner before having Anubis shoving the letter into his face.

"All the above. To Nippon you go. I hope that your ability to fly help you see beyond the ocean's horizon?" Anubis asked sarcastically as he leered at Hermes who nodded to the jackal deity and began to build up his momentum for a light dash. "Sure thing boss man! You're the chief of guiding dead peeps of all that wiz. I'll be back before you can say Bacchanal." With that Hermes zoomed away heading eastward to Nippon and leave Anubis be.

[hr]

The next day came and Taiyou was sleeping in his bed as morning came. Kassandra herself was downstairs sleeping on the couch of Anubis who was at the moment by the balcony looking over a map of Egypt. The cartography was very simple to say the least. Beside a general outline of the Nile, some mountain ranges, the Mediterranean Sea and some surrounding neighboring Kingdoms, there was nothing much regarding terrain details.

Along the Nile were dots denoting cities and major settlements with some recognizable landmarks. He sat by the table with pieces representing monsters placed on the map, followed by models of fortresses and strongholds around Egypt. He noticed that the monster rampages seems to focus on Memphis before dies down with rampages originated from the south, first reported to be in Thebes, the point of origin. "How fitting…" He mused the irony and took a sip from his goblet of beer. "A capital as old as him as the point of origin." He stroked his chin thinking about the findings before getting up from the table and walked into the bedroom to check on Taiyou to see if he was still asleep.

The wolf was still soundly asleep, but he definitely looked healthier than he had the day before, and that itself was a good sign as his markings had returned...but they were much less elaborate than before, he didn't feel the same strength or godly divine power radiating out of them, only a sore and rash from the pain of having his power stolen from him. The faded markings took on a dull shades of red, like washed up paint and color leftover causing him some concerns.

Seeing that Taiyou was healthier now and with the sun was rising on the East, Anubis then came over to Taiyou and tapped on his nose to see his reaction, the twitching of Taiyou's nose and his body suggested that he was beginning to wake up before Anubis went over to the closet and picked out a trumpet. He came over Taiyou and blew it to wake Taiyou up. "Awake! Apollo's steeds are on the horizon!" Anubis called out.

The reaction was...as expected, as Taiyou let out a yelp of surprise, and fell out of bed. "Was that REALLY necessary?" he sighed, but quickly got up, while a small ball of red light came out and was bouncing angrily.

"Yeah! What's the big idea?!" Issun agreed.

"What's better way to begin the day than to hear the trumpet of battles? Let's go we have a lot going on today and the coming days. Namely where Kek might have gone to." Anubis nonchalantly remarked to them as he put the trumpet away into the closet and locked it up.

"Come on hurry up. Warm up, breakfast, practice and most importantly, prepare for a trip down to Thebes the ancient capital." Said Anubis as he went downstairs and woke Kassandra up in a gentler manner and Taiyou could hear the muffled sound of Kassandra yawning and accepting something, a jingly sound of purse of money being handed to her with Anubis stating to her something.

Taiyou sighed, but got up, moving his arm a little, and noted his limbs didn't feel as heavy as before. "Breakfast will be ready soon, meet me by the riverbank of Memphis." Anubis called upstairs to Taiyou before walking out of the estate towards the riverbanks of the Nile. He didn't wear his Strategos armor with him, only a trouser wrapped around his waist with the signature scarab belt buckle with the segmented scale abdomen piece. On his back Anubis seem to carry his bows with him and the ammo for those bows and on his belt was the scabbard with his Conductor of Souls sword.

"Well, let's get to it," Taiyou shrugged with a small smile, before getting dressed. With his robes destroyed, and considering where he was, he decided a change of wardrobe was necessary. Inside of the wardrobe in his room there wasn't much of traditional robes or outfits for Orientals like him. Instead, there were plenty of traditional Egyptian noble robes and Greek tunics and togas. He picked out the Greek tunic with oceanic sapphire blue dye before putting it on.

Once Taiyou and Issun have left the estate and head out to the riverbank of the Nile, they found that Anubis was standing on the water surface, being able to channel his Mana to help him stand and walk around seamlessly on water surfaces, never having to touch or disturb the water with his feet or wet his fur.

"Looks like you didn't waste your time, that's a good start if you want to hunt Kek." Anubis stated to Taiyou as he was seen practicing his mana concentration on the water. His palms were glowing blue with flaming resin being physical manifestations of Mana power, he then practiced tai chi in the process, with his hands moving gracefully summoning condensed columns of water that act as his platforms to practice his parkour skill. He hopped from one platform to the next, jumping and clutching onto platform scales and outlying areas before climbing up and performed acrobatic moves.

Taiyou blinked at what Anubis no doubt wanted him to try and follow, but he didn't say anything, instead closing his eyes and focusing. He felt his mana flow in him...much weaker than it usually was, but he took what he could and focused it onto his feet. He slowly walks towards the water, stepping on it, and remaining aloft for a few moments...before falling into the water. Sputtering, he quickly got out. "Maybe I should have stayed in a loincloth," he sighed in mild annoyance, but tried again. And again. And again. Eventually though, he'd managed to find the balance needed, and began walking on the water, as if he had the Water Tablet.

Anubis who was now at the top, simply sat down with his legs crossed on one another in a meditative stance, patiently waiting for Taiyou to reach him. He didn't open his eyes but still he could see the world around him with the innate power of Necromancy giving him a sixth sense of seeing life forms moving towards and away from him. Taiyou himself was slow to climb up the platforms as he struggled to reach Anubis. In fact, the higher he climbed, the more he sweat and with each drop of sweat, the sun rose higher above the mountain before their eyes.

Eventually Taiyou reached the platform Anubis was on but with his fur wet and he was panting from the experience. "Never let yourself be taken by anger or frustration. Patience and keen eyes guide your every step of the way. Now take a deep breath, and look at Ra on Khepri's back." Anubis lectured in a steady tone while keeping his eyes closed facing Eastward at the direction of the rising sun.

"I see it," Taiyou nodded.

"That before you is Ra, the Pharaoh of Egypt, his light and warmth bring life to us all. Now to introduce you to the life giver of the desert." Anubis then stood up walking towards the edge of the water platform and stretched his hands out to both sides and made a leap of faith off the edge swan diving gracefully to the murky green Nile river below and made a splash. To Taiyou and Issun's eyes, it would almost seem like Anubis was encouraging them to do the same and make a leap of faith into the Nile with him.

"Well...leap before we think," Issun shrugged.

"Not much to think in this case," Taiyou nodded, before jumping off as well, making a splash and soon resurfacing. "Next time we practice in water, I need to remember to ditch excessive clothing," Taiyou sighed when he resurfaced.

As Taiyou resurfaced, he looked around and saw that Anubis was resurfacing close to where he was. The jackal deity then swam over to him before gesturing him to board one of the nearby Feluccas on the Nile. "Where do you need to go lord Anubis? I need to deliver my vegetable to the nearby docks." The oarman asked as Anubis pointed him to the city's shipyard and he began to ride the felucca into that direction. "Where are you from neb? From the south I presume." Anubis asked the Egyptian man and he nodded to the deity.

"That's right my lord. Setka is my name, I came from Faiyum oasis to deliver some vegetables and amphoras." The Egyptian man said, to which Anubis turned his eyes to the nearby basket of salad, lettuce and tomatoes with some apples for sale. He then sniffed at the amphora trying to have a good whiff of the alcohol there before sensing the Dionysus blessed fermented alcohol assaulting his noses. "Setka, how is Faiyum? I haven't seen it for a long time, not since I left it as a child." The deity asked in a calm tone, but Taiyou and Issun hearing it could pick up some slight sobbing and sombre sound in his voice.

"It has been practically the same, Kemetian, Hellenes, they live in different parts of the same cities or separate settlements. There is this new gladiator arena opened in Krokodilopolis though. The citizens of the city love it, especially when their patron Sobek himself is in the arena wrestling with the Gallic mercenaries." Setka replied with excitement to Anubis as he came to the dock letting Anubis and Taiyou dismount. "Thank you Setka, safety and peace to you good man." Said Anubis as he crossed his right hand over his heart before leaving with Taiyou.

"So that is a city with gladiators?" Taiyou mused.

"It wasn't like that when I was a pup. I heard there was a Roman investor, he came to Faiyum with gladiatorial games and built an arena. Septimius Dollarius." He sighed out as he walked with Taiyou around the shipyard of Memphis, Anubis rotated his head left and right observing the ships there before eyeing one of the barges and approached it. "You there!" He called to the crew unloading statues of gold from the barge. "Where is the captain?" He asked.

"You mean Khensuhotep? He's by the guesthouse probably getting drunk with the ladies there. That or he's probably gambling with someone in there." The sailor huffed and puffed as he continued unloading gold statues of Ptah off of the barge. "Did he say ladies? That sounds better than nothing. I bet that at least Egypt has some beautiful women like at home too." Issun declared smittenly as he jumped up and down Taiyou's head with pinkish color denoting his apparent love for exotic faraway beauties.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something about the people of Egypt…" Taiyou mused, wondering what it was he forgot

"Come on, I hope it's not too serious that you might cause cultural clashes." Said Anubis as he led them towards the Guesthouse of Memphis, a sort of Inn and diner in one building where upon entering, Taiyou and Issun saw that the place was fairly packed with Greek soldiers, merchants, native Egyptian. The captain was mentioned to be either getting drunk with beautiful women in there or gambling.

Anubis scanned his eyes around looking for where the captain was before spotting a group of men by a wooden table playing a game of Senat. They were tossing down sticks with one surface painted black and the other white, denoting night and day respectively. The excitement and adrenaline was running high for them as they played, moving the pieces they had on the rectangular board towards the finish line. "Let's start there." Anubis ushered Taiyou over with him.

As they come close Anubis cleared his throat and asked the group of players. "Anyone here seen a captain of a barge?" Anubis asked, catching their attention with his baritone. They looked over to him and pointed to a fair skin man with a murky red tunic and black wig. "You Khensuhotep? Captain of the barge by the docks?" He asked, to which the man nodded and replied. "Yes yes, I am. What do you have need for me my lord Anubis? Perhaps if I help you I could maybe have an easier path to the Duat?" He asked jokingly and let out a hearty laugh knowing how many times Anubis seem to have heard this joke by the mortals. "But in all seriousness, I know diligent is more rewarding in the long run. You need my barge to go somewhere?" He asked Anubis.

The jackal deity nodded to him. "I do. I need to travel south to Thebes the ancient capital. You fit for taking some passengers?" Hearing this the captain held his chin with his right thumb and index finger, he stroked for a second before nodding to Anubis. "Yes yes, this could work very well. Hmmm I suppose I'll have to let you go free of charge. But the passengers ..." He paused and trailed his eyes to Taiyou for a moment, seeing this Anubis raised a frown and leered at the man. "Alright free of charge for them too. Buuut I'm a bit of a jam here in this place…" He pointed to the gamblers who all groaned and moaned out in annoyance.

"Damn you Khensuhotep you cheat! You're broke, the last game alone blew your Drachma all the ways to Ra's coffer now you want to drag our patron in to win?" One of the gamblers there groaned out. Anubis cleared his throat before gently pushing Taiyou forward. "Actually, I am not playing. He is. He wins, all the stakes so far. He loses, I'll pay out of my pocket. Deal?" The gamblers there blinked incredulously before slowly nodding to Anubis all fearing that if they somehow won it might anger Anubis to the point they might be shut out of the Duat. An unlikely event but still no less possible for mortals.

"Well...I don't have any objections. Not to mention I've gambled a bit here and there," Taiyou scratched the back of his head. "But are you sure?"

Anubis nodded to Taiyou. "Absolutely. Just toss the fours sticks, white means day and black means night. The number of squares you get to go through is determined by how many white sides you have."

"Alright...seems simple enough," Taiyou nodded, before picking up and tossing the four sticks. The sticks then fell to the table flipping around on impact before finally settling showing Taiyou has 3 days and 1 night. He moved his piece through 3 squares, landing on the 20th square of the board, which causes the gamblers to grow anxious and all of them roar up in a thrilling moment. He was merely one row away from the finish line but the final 10 grids were thrilling challenges. Taiyou saw that four of the grids before the last one were painted with special markings. He couldn't understand what they mean but the look on Anubis face could tell they were bad news for anyone caught in them.

The other gamblers then began to take their turns at the game, throwing the sticks up and move their pieces accordingly. Some were approaching Taiyou's pawns and were able to capture some of the grids or houses in Senat games terminology. But two final pieces of Taiyou were protected and were unreachable because pieces of different players were set in between them.

As the game progressed, more and more pieces were removed from the board, soon Taiyou had his two pieces nearing the end of the game. He tossed his sticks once again this time with 3 days to move. He then moved his pieces to a grid marked with a symbol of two birds. Once he landed on it the gamblers all gasped and their faces turned pale in a sudden. "The house of three-truths. That means you get to roll your sticks again. Maybe ending the game even. Anyone want to push their luck?" Anubis asked nonchalantly to the gamblers at the table, seemingly certain that he would win the game.

"If I can roll again, I'll do it," Taiyou shrugged, before rolling again. All four of them were white this time. "Game. Set. And. Match." Anubis stated to the gamblers who all had their mouths left gaped by the sight of what was obviously a game lost and with that their money as well. They silently slip over the bags of Drachma on the table to Taiyou and Anubis with Khensuhotep laughed out hysterically seeing the winning that was coming to him. "We'll divide the money, 50-50. No questions asked." Anubis snided at the captain whose smile melted away as he hesitantly handed Anubis half of the Drachma bags before walking out of the guesthouse.

As he walked out, he bumped into one of the waitresses there and had his wig fell off, revealing his bald head. The man hastily grabbed the wig and put it back on before running out of the doors. "Wigs, the height of Egyptian fashion beside jewelries. Even women wear them." Anubis remarked tersely to Taiyou as he counted the Drachma.

"Oh yeah, that's what I was forgetting," Taiyou mused, while Issun didn't look happy at that bit of information.

"Why the heck would they all shave their heads bald?!" Issun asked.

"I think it was something about avoiding lice or something," Taiyou mused. "Anyway, where to next?" he asked.

"Home. Time to teach you the swordsmanship of the Hellenic world." Anubis stated to Taiyou as he led them back to the estate, criss crossing the streets and neighborhood of Memphis.

"That's gonna be interesting," Taiyou mused. "Though it may not look like it, I've actually had swordsman training...though it was more for using a katana. Still, I'm always open to learn new styles."

Once they have returned to the estate where Anubis brought Taiyou to an open garden where there were various combat dummies made of wood and some from bronze or sculpted from stone. They appeared as lively as they can be with weapons, armor and the intricate details of their gears carved and sculpted to the point of almost identical to real life.

He brought out a bronze shield from storage to Taiyou while Issun sat aside and watch as a spectator. The shield Taiyou saw had a navy blue background with a white seahorse drawn on it, it was a round bronze shield protecting his body for the most part and obscure his blade from enemy sights. But upon holding the shield, Taiyou felt its weight bearing down forcing him to slight bend his knees while holding it in his left hand.

"It's...definitely heavier than using my Reflector, though I guess that's to be expected," Taiyou mused as he got used to the weight. "So you're going to teach me a sword and shield style then?"

Anubis nodded while holding his bow in hand and aimed at Taiyou's shield. "Begin." He uttered briefly before firing at Taiyou's shield forcing him to hold up his shield to protect himself. The arrows slammed into the shield repeatedly causing him to take some steps back, giving ground and letting Anubis dashed forward.

The jackal deity zigzagged around Taiyou before drawing his sword slashing at Taiyou, only to be countered by Taiyou using his shield to bat and parry the slashes away. "10 slashes. They're all a waste of breath. Focus on one thing only, the stab. One thrust and your enemy shall die in an instant." Anubis instructed Taiyou, snarling viciously as he treated the training as real as possible.

"Right!" Taiyou nodded, and did as he was instructed. It was...different from his usual style, but not TOO different that he'd be unable to work it out. The basic concept was the same. Block and/or parry with the shield, then counter using the opening it created.

Anubis then paused, giving Taiyou a moment to pause and collect his breath as the jackal deity then picked up a shield of his own. This one though Taiyou saw was a black shield Hoplon shield with a red Lamda letter painted on its surface. "Watch and learn." Anubis stated to Taiyou as he drew his Conductor of Souls before assuming position before a bronze statue.

He held his shield forward with his blade hidden behind the shield in a mid ready position. Then, Taiyou saw that the bronze statue started to move, striking its own Kopis sword at Anubis, only to have the deity slammed the shield into its face, stunning it. The jackal deity then quickly stab the statue's chin and the blade emerged on the other end of the statue's head. "Slam to stun, stab to kill." He finished before pulling his sword back, and made a slash across the neck, decapitating the statue of its head almost instantly.

Taiyou copied, though he also added a few of his own touches, such as stabbing, then ripping out only to follow up with a slash at what would have been a vital part. As he slashed, the Sunslayer emit embers of flame that caught the flammable wood of one dummy, causing it to catch fire. Much to Taiyou's surprise, the dummy actually started to panic, though it can not speak or scream, it ran and dunk itself into the nearest mantle of water with steam escaping it.

"They occasionally do that." Anubis remarked tersely. "Okay doggo, is there anything in your home that is not haunted, partially sentient, or can scream ear piercing haunting shrieks?" Issun bounced up and asked dreadfully at Anubis who did not turn to face Issun rather he remarked, "More than enough to make you sleep with crocodiles." He replied to Issun.

"In short be careful...and could you warn us if any of them are like that...in fact, can I request we NOT use objects that are sort of alive? I don't feel good practicing this on something that can actually feel it," Taiyou said.

"Of course, we'll practice on live crocodile instead." He remarked sarcastically

"A simple no would have worked just as well," Taiyou said flatly.

"Now." He turned to face Taiyou now holding both his sword and shield in hand ready. He assumed combat position, hunching his back forward with his shield held in front, obscuring his blade. "Show what you've got." He ordered Taiyou, making his tone clear that he expected no hold bars fight between him and Taiyou.

Taiyou frowned, but nodded, going to a ready stance, aiming to be defensive for now. He knew Anubis was the more experienced fighter, so either way he'd be at a disadvantage, but for now, he'd try to get a feel of his style.

Anubis glare directly at Taiyou's eyes holding his shield in front to keep Taiyou off balance as he couldn't tell if Anubis was going high or low. As the Jackal Deity surged forward, he made a leap in the air and bashed his shield against Taiyou own to throw him off balance.

Anubis then took a quick stab at Taiyou's neck, stopping just as soon as the tip of his blade made contact with Taiyou's fur. He then resumed his pose for a do-over, Taiyou recovered but feeling rather tired by the strike he waited for Anubis to once again strike again.

Anubis then quickly made a few dashes forward trying to attack Taiyou, only this time Taiyou laid low, planting his shield into the to harden his defensIve stance before jumping up and slash his sword across Anubis shield to throw him off balance. He then slashed around Anubis shield, leaving various scratch marks on the surface before being poked by Anubis sword in his abdomen region.

Taiyou gulped a little. "How good or bad?" he asked.

"A good start. Not exactly the best but a good start nonetheless." Anubis sighed out as he lowered his weapon and guards. He mounted the shield on his back in a tell tale funerary manner. Their training ground was visited by Kassandra, escorted by a Jackal Guard Pentakosiarch, Taiyou and Anubis saw that Kassandra was carrying with her a rolled up papyrus paper, possibly a message scroll. "Kassandra? What is it?" Anubis asked.

"Dead men are telling tales in Thebes." Kassandra stated to him before handing the scroll to Anubis, he opened it up and looked at the hieroglyphic writing with growing concerns and apprehension. "This is bad… Why Thebes of all places?" Anubis wondered. "What do you think my lord?" Kassandra asked Anubis, to which he glanced at her and replied. "We're going to Thebes, double time it as well. You two should get some sleep and pack some personal belongings. We'll leave tomorrow morning."

"So the dead are rising from their graves? That's not good by any stretch of the word…" Taiyou frowned. "Okay, we'll get some rest," he said, before looking at Kasandra. "You're coming along too?" he asked, wanting to be sure he didn't hear wrong.

She however was a bit more apprehensive and was reasonably cautious to speak to Taiyou. "If Anubis allows it. Would you?" She looked over to Anubis who was apparently busy with putting the shield and statues into storage. "Yes yes, you can if you are interested. Just know that Thebes isn't exactly as welcoming, you two will meet some of the older deities there so consider it a learning experience." Anubis replied to them as he then took them out of the training ground of his estate.

"I'll stick by her side if needs be," Taiyou said. "Even if I've lost most of my power, I'm still strong enough to stop any mortals causing trouble."

"Granted." Kassandra remarked to him dryly as she walked out of the estate with Anubis following behind. "Where will you be?" Anubis asked her, to which she turned back to face him. "The suburb, hope is lacking there." Kassandra spoke with a slight tinge of hesitant and concern in her voice.

Anubis, whose power allow him to pierce her eyes and read the depth of her soul knew what she was implying. "Very well. I can't give them favored loans to rebuild their livelihoods. But know that none shall be left behind in trying times." Anubis replied to her with a dry tone, it was stern and authoritative but not without a hint of compassion and softness that he apparently was trying to hide. Kassandra nodded to him and begin to walk with Taiyou to the northern suburb of Memphis to see the place's current condition.

Once they have returned to the northern suburbs, they found the place to have been wrecked by the Chimera with most of the mud brick buildings there being leveled to smouldering ruins by the Chimera's fire attack and its powerful physical strength. The Lycans, anthro wolves there, were busy counting whatever that's left of their homes, food supplies, wares and trade goods to continue their lives along with the tools for artisans.

"I hope they can recover soon from that Chimera's attack," Taiyou sighed. He wanted to help, but as it was, other than perhaps helping things with sunlight, he didn't have any of his powers to help.

"Don't get too attached." Kassandra remarked. "They never had it easy, at least they have a patron to keep them safe." She stated to him while crossing her arms before walking over to a still relatively intact mud brick house with two stories.

She entered the house with Taiyou and inside he found it to be a quaint looking structure with the furniture being made out of wood. The fireplace of the house was made of mud brick where a cauldron was hung above and within it Taiyou can smell the salty soup and vegetables. "This is it, my home away from Sparta. I suppose it should be more than what a Periokori would need let alone want." Said Kassandra as she went to check on the warehouse and storage shed of the house where the various Hellenistic potteries were still intact for sale.

"It's a nice home. It has all the feelings of a warm welcoming home like some of the homes back in Nippon," Taiyou smiled.

"Perhaps, but to me, the idea of home is rather… strange. Part of me misses it. The other wishes not to return." Said Kassandra as she took some long and slender pots on the table and began to clean them. These were painted with various depictions of the Olympics, athletes with olive wreaths on their heads. Other depictions were of Spartan hoplites in stylized manner holding the Thermopylae pass with the legendary King Leonidas leading the army. "The moment you make a bountiful earning, the State came and tax the lion's share away. Then we're back to square 1, you know where the money goes to?" She paused to let him make a guess.

"Hopefully somewhere that at least benefits the people they take it from," Taiyou frowned. He knew taxes were important, but that was practically stealing.

Kassandra let out a sarcastic chuckle as she cleans the potteries in her home before handing Taiyou one of those. This one depicts a family standing by the doorway of their home, their children was being dragged away by the arm by what appeared to be soldiers of Sparta. "This is what the State viewed as a benefit for all. The Agoge, or Pain." She paused for a moment to let Taiyou processed the information before she continued, this time opening a case containing what appeared to be a short stabbing sword with its blade looking like a leaf, a Hoplon shield with red background and white Lamda letter on its surface.

"We are not children of our parents, but of the State. At the age of 7, we were taken from our parents, boys and girls and are taught to be soldiers for boys, strong and athletic mothers for girls. The boys were shaped by whips, by violent, by fury and bloodlust to be soldiers of the State." She then handed Taiyou another pot, this one was a larger and more intricately decorated with a depiction of a boy, aged 10 learning how to fight using a sword against a grown adult.

"That's terrible…" Taiyou gasped. "I can understand grooming from a young age...but this is like you were intended to be soldiers from day one…" he looked sad at that.

"Soldiers is putting it lightly." Kassandra remarked to him before giving him another pot she had just cleaned, this one showing him a depiction of young male adults in their 20s. These boys were in red tunics, bald head and look fit for their age. This one show them snapping the neck of a man in the dead of night with Nyx in the background to give the awareness of time.

"The Rite of Passage. The culling of Helots. The boys in their 20s were dispatched by elite Krypteia secret police to find and kill a Helot, State owned serfs who look tall, handsome, charismatic or might display rebellious tendencies. Succeed and slip away unseen, they are admitted to be a full Spartan citizen and enjoy all legal rights of the Homoioi class." Kassandra finished, she sighed out reminiscing the traumas and memories of the Agoge she was subjected to.

"Girls like me were to be mothers, bearing children who will go through the same process like their parents and grandparents. The boys were taught if they want to marry anyone of us, they must kidnap us first as a test to see if we were a match made in heaven for life to come." She snided.

Taiyou looked disgusted at that. "That's just not right!" he said, and not in the sense that he was disagreeing that she was telling the truth. "So someone who you didn't like or even know could just randomly decide they wanted to marry you and then basically attack you?!"

"Practically the point. But they must wrestle us in Pankration after abduction. Failure means we get to kill them, no hard feelings." Said Kassandra in a dry nonchalant tone, implying to him her first kill in her younger years. She then walked over to the Spartan weapons in the large chest and pulled them out one by one. They consist of a Korinthos helmet with a metal slit protecting the nose with a narrow eye slit area.

The next was a cuirass bronze breastplate to be worn over a person's torso protecting them from incoming attacks. Ankle guard plates and gauntlets made of bronze with a Dory spear, the Hoplon shield and sword. "If we are married, then we are to expect our loved ones' inevitable demise on the battlefield." She handed Taiyou the hoplon shield and the spear with the shield on his left hand and the spear on his right. "With it, or on it. Those were the words all women of Sparta must memorize when sending their husbands and sons to war."

"That's…" Taiyou was at a loss for words. "You...had to live through all that…?"

Kassandra nodded to him nonchalantly, maintaining her cold poise and demeanor. Truly for Taiyou, the Spartan woman that he had the fortune of meeting had ironically, the misfortune of enduring all forms of abuses and cruelties imaginable. "Being able to live to the age of 7 is a blessing. When we were infants, the elder would inspect us for deformities or sickness. Anything slightly imperfect and we would be discarded to die by the foot of the sacred hill." She sighed out feeling rather grossed out by it.

Taiyou would see that hanging on the wall was a stone tablet depiction of a Spartan elder inspecting a baby wrapped in cloth with the base of the hill bing littered with skeletons and skulls of discarded infants, deemed imperfect by Spartan standards.

"Then there's the classes. Helots are the serfs who work the fields and act as slaves hauling the army supplies. The Perioikoi like my family, we have no rights, though we enjoy the protection of the army, we must work the artisan and make money to fund it. Then there's the Homoioi, 10,000 warriors class of full citizens and professional soldiers. Each one have 8 helots as their own slave in the house." She visualized the social caste to Taiyou by segmenting the Lamda letter on the shield from the bottom up and Taiyou saw that the higher it goes, the smaller the class become and yet the Homoioi rule over the other larger two classes.

She didn't get to say more, cause suddenly she felt the male wolf's arms around her, holding her close. "You don't need to say anymore. I understand. It was...hard...and I imagine you left because it became too much," he said soothingly.

She gasped upon feeling Taiyou's arms around her as she let out a surprised yelp and whimpered in a canid fashion. Her whimper was followed by some sobbing and sniffling sounds as she struggled to hold back tears from the tender and compassionate act by Taiyou. "Thank you Taiyou. This is the first time… anyone has ever given me compassion." She sighed out and leaned her head in, resting on his pectoral region.

"People forget everyone needs it sometimes. Life's not easy, but it's a LOT easier when we lend a hand to each other," Taiyou said with a kind smile.


	3. Chapter 3: Curse of the Pharaohs

Chapter 3: Curse of the Pharaohs

Just as they had planned, Anubis took Taiyou and Kassandra with him to Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt's distant past further South of the Nile. The trip south was on a cargo barge paid for in Drachma and they past down numerous locations like Faiyum, Asyut, Aswan, before finally arriving at Thebes.

They arrived by the docks of Thebes, the famous ancient capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom period along with the New Kingdom after it. Taiyou can see that Thebes itself had little to no Greek influences on it with the city architect and various temples, monuments remain exclusively traditional Egyptian style.

"Look at this city Chibi, these guys here are even more boring than Memphis, I mean look at those statues, the grand temples and all, it's like they want to look at those boring work of arts for days!" Issun commented while bouncing on Taiyou's head having a look at Thebes.

"I hope that you won't be swept away by cats in town." Said Kassandra with a snark that made Issun shuddered in fear. Taiyou himself was now dressed in Spartan Hoplite armor given to him by Kassandra, from head to toe, he was protected by bronze Korinthos helmet, heavy bronze cuirass armor and gauntlets, leg guards made of bronze. She'd decided to give it to him after his show of compassion to her, having decided that she'd trust him with the armor, especially since she didn't have anyone else to give it to anyway.

For a Spartan woman like Kassandra, it was sacrilegious to simply hand her family and State Hoplite armor to a stranger without marrying that person. But to her, some traditions may be bent as she felt comfortable around him, her instincts seem to tell her that she can trust him.

As the trio disembarked from the ship, the local merchant boy with an abnormally colored red head and red tunic ran alongside them offering local accommodation. "Do you need something travelers? A bigger shield? A room in the inns? A bodyguard?" He stopped in front of the two making a boisterous pose but he seemed to take some fun in it.

Issun, who was following Taiyou by hopping around like a flea with glowing green aura around him glanced up at the sight and quipped on instinct. "Huh, this fella knows how to impress your wallet." Said Issun.

But his advertisement soon came to a stop when Anubis and Taiyou noticed the strange wind behind him. The sand and dirt began to be picked up and pulled into a mini twister in the midst of the dock.

They saw before their own two eyes, a feminine figure rising out of the twister, one decaying in appearance and worse still, sporting a creepy burial face mask with pale eyes hidden behind the sockets. "It's time for me to leave then!" The merchant boy ran off as fast as he could, leaving the trio to face the Ghostly apparition themselves.

It was none other than Queen Nefertiti, the Lady of Grace and Beauty. On her hands were dual blades ready to slash and hack Anubis and Taiyou to pieces. "Get behind me!" Anubis growled and moved up before Taiyou and Kassandra, drawing his Conductor of Souls sword and engaged in combat with Nefertiti.

"Wait!" Taiyou shouted, but too late, as much to his horror, Nefertiti was quick and agile, apparently too fast on her feet as she managed to jump into the air and landed a stomp on Anubis's back, knocking him down on the ground.

The ghostly apparition of Nefertiti then quickly kicked Anubis up into the air and proceeded to hack and slash his body with the dual blades, leaving numerous wounds on his body as he fell down on the ground after a stab to the gut. The wound began to leak blood and veins of gold, divine body fluid of Egyptian deities and manifestations of divinities on their bodies.

The Lady of Grace then quickly turned her head towards Taiyou and Kassandra, gazing at them in the most ominous way possible, she prowled around them almost like a predator, a hunter toying with her prey. Then she proceeded to dash around Taiyou, with her blades held forth like iron wings, in the wake of her feet's inhuman speed, he saw cherry bombs of his sprouted from the ground ready to blow.

"She's got the Cherry Bomb Brush!" he shouted, right as they quickly dove out of the way of the explosions with Taiyou covering Kassandra by pinning her down and using his body as a shield.

The explosions rocked the dock area as the Lady of Grace continued her savage unrelenting attack at Taiyou and Kassandra, once again she prowled around them, but before she can deal another blow, she felt Anubis's Mummify stun attack sticking to her, freezing her in place.

He then rolled on the ground at her direction and drew his blade. The jackal deity thrust his sword through her torso region right where her heart would be and carved his way to her left.

This caused the graceful assailant to howl and writhe in pain as she wobble around trying to gain some balance and bearings. Then she began to disappear into another twister, leaving the dock empty for the time being. "Are you alright?" Kassandra coughed out dazed by the violent as she slowly stood up with Taiyou looking at his back where the Cherry Bombs exploded.

Taiyou for now was left with the sight of Anubis reeling from the wounds he sustained. The deity sheathed his sword and summoned his Was Scepter, though now it appeared he had to use it as a walking cane than anything.

"Don't you want to look to those wounds? I mean you were pretty badly beaten up back there." Taiyou stated cautiously as he followed Anubis's side, he followed Anubis from the docks towards the city's plaza near the Grand temple of Amun.

As they did, Anubis huffed and coughed out more blood, his breathing became more haggard as he struggled to keep his balance. The populace of the city cowered before them with most of the citizens steering clear of Anubis and Taiyou path as the two walked pass by. "Hard to convince him Taiyou, the guy is way too edgy to reason." Said Issun in a shameless moment of self aggrandizing.

"Don't worry…*Cough* just a flesh wound, I'll be fine." Anubis protested, stubbornly holding onto his scepter to support himself as he walked towards the plaza square of the city. "You need help Anubis, please don't be so stubborn and let me see those wounds." Kassandra pleaded to him, to which Anubis pretended not to hear but the more he pushed himself forward, the weaker his pose and walking become, he fell side to side having to rely on walls to prop himself up.

As he walked closer however, he found the square to be crowded with citizens congregating before the High Priestess, the God's Wife of Amun, Amunet. The High Priestess was dressed in a Egyptian white cotton robe with highly ornate gold headdress. Standing before the crowd she addressed them with her commanding voice.

"Hear me citizens of Thebes! Hear me the God's Wife of Amun. For I Amunet speaks for Amun himself, the city is in peril, tomb raiders, thieves and crooks desecrated the tombs of our ancestors. The theft of a jewelry is nothing, nothing when compared to the theft of a divine amulet or sacred food." The Priestess called out to the stunned and confused populace as they muttered to themselves. Anubis and Taiyou were seen pushing through the crowds, some of the pedestrians gasped in shock upon seeing Anubis passing by aided by Taiyou.

As the trio came before the Priestess, she gasped at the bloody sight of Anubis, bloodlets dripped to the ground, with Taiyou's hand being red with the substance. Anubis coughed and fell to his knees, the priests of the temple ran out to pick him up, wrapping his body with their clothes and blankets as they brought him inside for treatment.

"Return to your homes citizens. May Amun protects you all." The Priestess ordered the populace as she then led Taiyou and Anubis inside the temple to check if Anubis's condition was fatal. "What happened to you my lord? What struck with such savagery?" Amunet asked Anubis as the Physicians brought him inside to the temple's nursery and placed him on a bed to be treated.

"A...Ghost...A Shadow of Nefertiti. The Lady of Grace." Said Anubis followed by some more coughing as the physicians held him down on the bed as they placed a bowl on the floor to catch the blood droplets while another began to apply herbal medicines on Anubis's flesh to numb his wounds.

As the medical practices were applied on Anubis the Jackal deity let out more intense and painful gasps and howls as a knee jerk reaction to the sensory inputs. "B-boy...come here, I need you." Said Anubis with a weak voice as he saw Taiyou coming to his side, the Jackal deity looked up at Taiyou with a weak gaze.

"It's up to you now...I can't move, not with the doctor's advice. Take my satchel, and my gear. Search the tombs on the West Bank of the city." Anubis instructed Taiyou cautiously. The Jackal deity was seen coughing out more blood as he laid on the bed of the temple, being fanned by the servants and priests while physicians were looking to heal his wounds.

Taiyou found the leather satchel of Anubis to carry a rather large amount of tools for a Mage class deity. Kassandra herself was next to Anubis helping the physicians tying up the bandages around his wounds.

The Book of the Dead contains spells and various instructions on Necronomicon. A fang of Typhon to help his lifesteal power, a map of Egypt and a compass to find direction. Some of the tools included what appeared to be a grey Ankh for something mysterious but Taiyou can tell by the coloration that it might have a more sinister purpose than the usual protection of life.

"Boy...go to the West...beyond the mountains and rock formations, there's a valley of tombs. Start your search there." Anubis instructed Taiyou pointing his finger Westward towards the sparsely populated West Bank of the Nile River.

There were various Feluccas to ferry Taiyou and Issun across, but they would be on their own once they've crossed. "Good luck...Boy...if you run into any one of those...things...take cover, avoid them altogether." Anubis reminded Taiyou cautiously before ushering him out of the temple.

"What about me? What am I supposed to do then?" Kassandra asked Anubis half concerned and annoyed as she awaited him to give her advice. "Stay here Kassandra, it's too dangerous outside. I'll accompany you when I'm able." He instructed her, coughing out somewhat, much to her annoyance that he wasn't letting her go with Taiyou. "Fine, if I must." She frowned and crossed her arms.

Left to his own devices and sense of duty, Taiyou then went out to the West Bank of the Nile with Issun on his shoulder. The young wolf hitched a ride on a felucca and went across the Nile to the Nile's West Bank, once they were across, Taiyou found the place to be sparsely populated, most of the visible sights he can see were mountains, rock formations and some dirt roads, footpaths.

If his knowledge of Egyptian customs and culture were right, the West Bank was considered a land of the dead, a place for burials but so far, he had not seen any lands for graveyards or burials. "So kiddo, where are we going to start? The doggo guy probably left you some instructions in that satchel right?" Issun asked, bouncing up and down on Taiyou's shoulder.

"He said to start beyond the mountains and rock formations. We're supposed to find a valley of tombs, so a bunch of Pyramids," Taiyou said simply, already making his way to that direction.

"Whatever you say Kiddo, lead the way. But boy is this place sure is hot. How they can stand living here is beyond me." Said Issun as he hopped up and down on Taiyou's shoulder. As the young adult white wolf proceeded to find his way further West, tracing the footpath leading up to the hills, he and Issun soon came across a community living along the hill side.

The people here were similar to most Egyptian populaces but here, they appeared to have strange pyramid like mud huts scattered along the mountain sides. Some of the more conventional rectangular looking mud brick houses were found in the center of the village. Making homes and workshops for weavers, blacksmiths and stalls for horses.

One of the villagers upon seeing Taiyou quickly collapsed to his knees and bowed before, praying and exalting his presence on instinct. Perhaps the villager knew that Taiyou's fur color being out of the ordinary meant something divine.

"Great One from distant land, bless us with your generosity! For this mortal have nothing to offer but good will." The villagers prayed to Taiyou over and over again, raising his head only to bow again immediately.

"Heh, these guys are pretty smart I'll give them that. They know you're famous and divine, but no way can their art measure up with me." Issun commented while bouncing up and down on Taiyou's shoulder. The young wolf can see that most of the villagers were doing the same thing to him.

Taiyou wasn't fully sure how to react to the sudden reception, but he gave them a friendly wave, and motioned for them to stand, which they did. "I...thank you for the warm welcome," he said. "I am searching for a valley of tombs on behalf of Anubis. Can you help me find it?"

The villagers muttered hearing this, they were highly concerned and confused to hear that a stranger like Taiyou would be searching for a tomb instead of Anubis, a deity specialized in the subject. The chieftain of the village step forwarded, dressed in a red robe with a white dark red head dress on his head. He came to Taiyou and cleared his throat to him and asked away. "And what reason for why great lord Anubis isn't doing this task?"

Issun upon hearing this immediately jumped forward before them and bounced constantly on the ground to make his reason known. "Listen up boys, your Anubis hunk is in bed being tended by your physicians. Taiyou here is doing his job and has the express permission to do so. Wanna argue? Take it up to him in the City's temple." Issun arrogantly stated.

Taiyou sighed in annoyance, before using his hand to trap the small artist, shutting him up for now. "I greatly apologize for my attendant. He is my mother's envoy, and that's...not helped his ego. But yes, Anubis was injured by a Shadow we encountered a short time ago, and as such has requested me to do this task in his stead while he recovers. The injuries while severe are not life threatening, so there is nothing to worry about," Taiyou said humbly. He had no desire to use this as an excuse to put himself on some higher standing.

The chieftain raised his brow skeptically to this however, he stroked his chin and his fake beard seeing the intrusion of an outsider was making him concern. He then nodded slowly to Taiyou before motioning him to continue to the West. "I will have to take this up to lord Anubis to clarify. But for now...you may proceed to the West, the Valley of the Kings where our Pharaohs rest. But take caution, the Shadows of restless pharaohs are prowling the land." The chieftain stated to Taiyou cautiously before ushering him to the West.

The deeper Taiyou and Issun went, the louder the echo of their voices became. They soon came to the heart of the Valley where a series of tomb entrances were built into the mountains. In sharp contrast to the expectations of Pyramids by Taiyou. It would seem that the Egyptians adapted their construction methods to build into the mountains and camouflage their tombs.

As Taiyou and Issun came closer to each individual tombs and examined them, they found those to be guarded by inscriptions and hieroglyphs that all said "Curse to all those who disturb the rest of the pharaoh." All of which were accompanied by glorious description and portraits of the Pharaohs in their prime living and leading successful military campaigns.

"I can understand the sentiment. They've all had to live their lives and they just want to rest," Taiyou mused. "But in this case we don't have a choice...if only there was a way we could go in WITHOUT disturbing them."

"Oh boohoo, curses, schmurses, what's the difference. They got nothing on us. Come on in Taiyou, I'm sure there's plenty to see in a dead guy's resting place." Issun insisted to Taiyou, not exactly making him feeling comfortable as the boy followed Issun closely into the tomb. As Taiyou found his way through the deep dark cavernous passageway.

He found the tomb to have various portraits depicting the Pharaoh's life and hieroglyphs stating what accomplishment a pharaoh achieved in his life. As he came to the Treasure room, Taiyou and Issun found what appeared to be a bed, idols of Anubis, crowns and an abnormally large collection of walking canes to support the pharaoh for some reasons. But the most alluring one of all for both Taiyou and Issun, was the sight of a golden passageway at the end of the tomb.

Before their eyes was a passageway just enough for him to slip through on the other side, there was something calling to him, a dark hallway it seems with a light as bright as the sun itself wanting him to come closer until he went through it completely. "What on Earth is that Taiyou? I doubt we've ever seen anything like this in Nippon." Issun stated.

"Whatever it is, it's probably worth looking into. Also, please don't touch anything if we end up finding the treasure room or something. I'd rather NOT anger any spirits even if I am a deity," Taiyou said with a sigh at the end.

"Right right," Issun shrugged. "Boy, you've really gotten uptight since you came here."

"I got uptight when I'm being careful not to accidentally offend any sensitive cultures or traditions. This isn't exactly Nippon where I have some leeway being Amaterasu's son, which mind you even then I don't like abusing," Taiyou deadpanned.

"Oh okay fine if you wish." Issun sighed out as he and Taiyou entered the portal slowly. Once the two were on the other side, Taiyou felt the floor was wet with water running around, before them were lotuses and lily pads with some fireflies loitering around the place. But as they walked further forward, they heard the demonic and judgemental voices from the darkness in front of them calling out to them. "Are you a thief? A liar? What debauchery have you indulged?" The voice asked demandingly to Taiyou, making him a bit more alarmed by the voices.

Soon enough, they caught sight of a quartet of anthropomorphic jackal warriors. Anubis's personal troops guarding a gateway to the Afterlife, the one in the middle was holding a Was Scepter and wear a light violet and purple headdress, perhaps a priest or high ranking Inquisitor. The others around him were apparently warriors armed with Dory spears or bronze swords and round shields. "What business brought you here, Prince of the Sun? You have yet to be processed by Lord Anubis's mummification and embalming." The Inquisitor Jackal stated to Taiyou.

"Hey buddy, nothing personal, but I think Taiyou here is just lost. We got a hot job from your Anubis, so maybe you guys might want to help Taiyou a bit." Issun stated much to the annoyance of the Jackal Inquisitor as he then proceeded to inspect Taiyou cautiously.

Taiyou groaned at the reaction, before grabbing a nearby jar (which he made sure was empty), and dropped Issun into it. He'd deal with the angry artist later. "What my mother's Envoy is so...inadequately trying to say is that Anubis sent us here on a task. We were hoping if you'd be able to help us with that," Taiyou said, keeping his tone as respectful as possible.

Once again, Taiyou made the Inquisitor raised an eyebrow in a similar fashion to the chieftain of the village. He saw the Inquisitor and his guards approached him and cautiously tapped his forehead strangely enough. "You may proceed boy...but the Duat will not take kindly to trespassers. Especially the Living." The Inquisitor warned Taiyou sternly as he then stood aside letting him and Issun through to the Duat. Once they were over the other side, they saw that the Duat was a dark and gloomy place out of their nightmares.

Before Taiyou's eyes, he saw a massive rocky, canyon like place with a perpetually dark and cloudy sky. Above his head were various fireballs, possibly souls of the Dead floating about. Not only that, but he also saw the place to be populated by various people from different walks of life going about in a small industrial town, bearing offerings and gifts to various shrines in the area. There were also the fearsome Jackal Guards patrolling the region in squads. "Uhhh Taiyou...kiddo...did we just...die?" Issun asked in a frightened manner to Taiyou.

"No...I don't believe we did," Taiyou sighed. "Most likely, we've entered the afterlife while alive…after all...they did say we were still among the living."

"Wait a minute, what does that suppose to mean to me? I'm not a deity so what would that mean for me around here?" Issun asked confusedly while hopping around terrified and utterly rocked to his core at the possibilities of being viewed and treated with some sort of suspicion and possibly discrimination and punishment.

"First of all, don't stray away from me," Taiyou said with a sigh. "And don't do anything stupid. Don't touch anything, don't talk to anyone unless we need to, and do NOT follow anything we're not sure about. The last thing we want is to wander somewhere that we can't get away from."

"Okay kiddo, lead the way if you know it. I really wish that we had the old dog Anubis here as a tour guide." Issun shuddered before hopping up on Taiyou's shoulder as they began to explore the Duat. They first passed by a set of massive blue lotuses that folded when Taiyou and Issun came close but glew brightly and bloom when they passed by.

Around them, the town folks all seem to have pale eyes and somewhat pale skins, though they seem to go about their daily routines like they were living, Taiyou and Issun knew that these were souls of the dead waiting for their judgement and this town was like a massive inn for them to stay in and wait.

"Just keep walking. Don't interact more than you need to," Taiyou muttered, both to Issun and to himself.

Taiyou and Issun would soon enter the town center where they were stalked by the various Jackal Guards patrols around the town. Most of whom gave them a very vicious if not outright hostile look on their faces. "Hey uh Chibi, maybe we should look for some place with a roof. Preferably somewhere you can read stuff. Like an archive maybe?" Issun suggested nervously looking at the Jackal warriors who were the more vicious and bloodthirsty versions of Anubis.

"Probably a good idea. I'd rather not have to find out how reasonable these guards are," Taiyou frowned.

As they two tried to walk around aimlessly around the Duat looking for some places that might be even remotely permitted to access. They soon came across a structure carved into the mountain with a set of stairs leading to a hallway where numerous priests and scribes were busy at work. The front of the place had a statue of Thoth, an anthro Ibis deity of Egypt, associated with truth, writing, technology, medicine, math and language. From the looks of it, asking a priest might be a better alternative than asking direction from the guards who were irritated by their presence alone.

"Well beside the bird guy, whom I assume must have a bird brain as well, I guess we'll start our search there then Chibi. Let's go." Issun suggested and boasted to Taiyou as they saw the various guards were going about patrolling the entrance of the building with some apparently dressed like elite Greek shock infantry, distinguishable by their round oval nut shaped shield. "Leap before you think Chibi, I don't think these guys can stand up to you in a straight up fight even in your current state." Issun boasted.

"Maybe," Taiyou sighed. "But I don't think picking a fight with them is going to help us if at all," he frowned. "I don't think we should pick any unnecessary fights."

"Oh fine, but come on really how is it that picking a fight with them is dangerous if you're a demi-god and they're what? Anubis Lite?" Issun sarcastically remarked while hopping up and down on top of Taiyou's head. As Taiyou approached the gates, the guards there quickly assume a Hoplite Phalanx formation with their shields collapsed into an overlapping segmented wall looking like dragon scale while their sarissa spears pointing at Taiyou's face.

"Uh… on the other hand maybe let's try to throw a bone at them? Holy Bones would work on these canine warriors right?" Issun sputtered nervously seeing the dead serious faces of the Jackal Warriors not giving an inch with strangers even Taiyou. "Halt! Who goes there? How dare you violate the sacred sanctuary of Thoth?" The Pentakosiarch there asked demandingly with a loud boast with his shield obscuring where his blade might strike next.

"I apologize for the intrusion," Taiyou said. "But I come on a mission from Anubis. It is of great importance."

"Lord Anubis? Do you have his seal?" The Pentakosiarch asked again, giving Taiyou a deathly glare before Taiyou pulled out what appeared to be a golden scarab amulet from the satchel Anubis lent him. The Pentakosiarch saw the scarab and blunk for a moment stunt and surprised just as his troops were. "Stand down men, the boy has Lord Anubis's approval." Said the Pentakosiarch as his troops slowly resume their normal guard pose and stood aside to permit Taiyou entry. However they maintained their disciplined stairs at him as he and Issun passed through.

"I really have a bad feeling about this Chibi, I mean these guys aren't kidding about taking lives if it means protecting Egypt." Issun commented while sweating nervously with Taiyou as they passed into the Hall of Two-Truths. Inside the place appeared to be a fairly spacious archive room maintained by priests of Thoth, all of whom had a leopard skin pelt wrapped around their shoulders and over their torso as a mark of power and authority. One of them however was a woman who appeared to have a divine aura around her. A typical looking Egyptian woman with light tanned skin, if not for her hieroglyphic writing on her body.

She appeared to have a Papyrus tree shaped crown on her head with a cheetah skin dress, in her hand she held a pencil with a wooden plaque to write on. "Who are you and what brought you here? State your intent but do so honestly, as I Seshat, keeper of writing and knowledge forbade you from tampering with my husband Thoth's archive." Said the Goddess in a stern and commanding tone.

"I am Taiyou of Nippon, son of Amaterasu. I came on behalf of Anubis in regards to the presence of the ghost of Nefertiti attacking the land of the living," Taiyou said, keeping his tone respectful.

"Anubis? The adopted son of my husband Thoth? What made him send you instead of himself?" She asked confusedly to Taiyou prompting Issun to hop up and down red with fury shouting at her apparent obliviousness.

"Hey lady don't you know that he's stabbed pretty badly already? He's relegated to a bed at this point with all those ghosts running around! Ya gotta help this kid track down the Ghost that stabbed Anubis like right away!" With that Issun calmed down a bit but retain his impatient and frustration while Seshat was processing the information and frantically scrolled through the numerous morning reports.

"Stabbed? Oh dear I haven't checked with the morning report of what has happened. If Anubis has indeed sent you on his behalf I have no choice but to assist. What do you need to find?" She asked Taiyou.

"I need information regarding Queen Nefertiti, Lady of the House of Grace," Taiyou said. "I want to know where in the Afterlife she is so we can find out what happened to her, and whether or not her rest was disturbed somehow."

Seshat then quickly browsed through the various catalogues of deceased royal families and members of the Pharaonic dynasties before coming across records of Nefertiti, the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. She then rolled out the papyrus paper on a table and helped translate the hieroglyphic writing on it to Taiyou. "Nefertiti, Lady of the House of Grace and Beauty. The wife of Akhenaten the Heretic passed on from the Duat to Aaru, the Field of Reeds. She who lived a life well and righteous in the face of her husband's heresy." There wasn't much writing to go on about her let alone explain her fighting style, at least Taiyou knew where to start looking.

"Thank you," Taiyou said with a nod. "Is it possible for me to go to Aaru?"

"Well," Seshat paused for a moment trying to remember the laws regarding travels to Aaru. "To go to Aaru you must be judged by Anubis during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If you pass it then you can go to Aaru. That's for mortals. If you're a Necromancer deity like Anubis and Thoth, you can go straight to Aaru without problems. I heard of another way there however. There is a gateway to Aaru, an emergency door but to enter it you must bring divine bread offering to the dead there." Said Seshat, to which Issun bounced up and down yammering and complaining loudly about it. "Wait what? Are you telling me that we have to bring bread offering like errand boys?"

Taiyou groaned and stopped Issun by covering him with his hand. "I apologize for him. His mouth moves faster than his brain," he said apologetically. "Where can I find this divine bread?"

"There should be some at a local bakery in the town near the Sanctuary of Anubis. It's easy to see since it has two Jackal idols guarding the entrance and right in front of it is a bakery." Seshat finished her explanation before handing Taiyou what appeared to be a sack of Drachma coins made of gold. These Drachma coins are enough to buy bread loathes for offering.

"Thank you again," Taiyou said and soon left with the directions in hand.

As he passed through the town towards the bakery, he noticed a massive black stoned structure standing with a commanding view of the town. The structure itself had a pair of Anubian Jackal statues sitting in a sphinx style pose, the building had a flight of stairs leading up to its entrance with candles lit up around it. From the looks of it, Taiyou and Issun could tell that it was Anubis Sanctuary but it appeared to much larger than just a sanctuary.

"Ew gross, I can smell corpses from here. What is it up there anyway? A morgue? And why am I smelling salt and tree sapling perfume? These Egyptian guys are weird beyond my comprehension, let me see what's up there." Issun hopped off Taiyou's head in a sudden and hopped his way up the staircase towards the Sanctuary of Anubis, soon enough the Poncle found that the place was more than just a temple of sorts. It was also a Funerary Parlor.

To the right side of the building was an open air area where Mummies were embalmed with organs surgically removed into canopic jars. The souls floating around the corpses lying on the table were held in place by the Inquisitors of the Jackal Guards as these priests and mages chant their incantations, morphing the disembodied balls of fires to take on the forms of anthropomorphic jackals with black fur color and gold veins plastered on their bodies. "Eeeek! They're summoning ghosts Chibi! Run! They rip you up after you die just so they can harvest your souls!" Issun shouted and sweated before hopping away.

"I don't think they're going to do that," Taiyou sighed, catching him. "But just in case, we probably shouldn't intrude."

"Yeah you're right. We should just leave it before they opted to imprison us in the dungeon or feed us to snakes or something worse." Issun said shakingly as the two went over to the bakery seeing that there were numerous oversized bread loaves on display ready to be bought and offered to the dead and the gods. When Taiyou sniffed the bread loaves, he picked up the sweet scent of honey coating the large buns like bread loaves, this prompted a hasty swat by a fearful baker. "Hold it right there!" He cried out swatting Taiyou's face with a broomstick.

Taiyou blinked, rubbing his nose a bit. "Was that really necessary?" he sighed. "I'd like to buy some bread for an offering."

"For an offering neb? By the grace of Amun, my apologies, I fear that someone might be hungry enough to steal my precious bread loaves." The baker sighed out in relief before placing his broomstick on a rack by his home's door then resume his routines. "Which one do you like? The Many of Geb? The Shell of the Apis? Or the latest Stick of Bastet?" The baker asked, showing Taiyou variations of his bread loaves ranging one looking like a round mound of Earth, a rugged darker crust bread resembling the Apis divine hides and a new bread loaf looking like a long stick with Bastet's figure painstakingly sculpted on top.

"Hm...I honestly can't say I know which to choose," Taiyou admitted. "What do you recommend?"

"Well the Many of Geb is a standard option for most offerings. Hence the name. The Shell of Apis is offering to good health and strength while the Stick of Bastet is for the protection of the household and grace for your surviving relatives to be blessed by her. But they all appease the gods either ways." Said the baker as he showed Taiyou to the stock of bread loaves he had inside the bakery, they all seem to have numerous shapes and flavor to them, predominantly honey, but Taiyou could smell some having grapes in them as well.

"Hm...considering what I'm here for, I'll take one of the Many of Geb please," Taiyou said, putting the money on the counter.

"Very well then neb, here you go." Said the baker as he handed Taiyou the large round bread loaf and took the Drachma coins before counting them to see if the payment was worth his labor's effort once the money was counted properly he bid goodbye to Taiyou. "See you again soon. When you're a permanent resident here that is neb." Said the baker with an added sarcasm as he went back to work.

Now that the bread loaf was secured, Taiyou was able to travel to Aaru to deliver his offering, he followed the instructions Seshat left for him and found his way to a gateway of gold and blinding light. Standing on either sides were a pair of statues of Anubis acting as guardians and moderators. "Okay Chibi, here it is. Ready or not there might not be any coming back from this. Leap before you think as I always say." Said Issun.

"In this case there really isn't anything else we can prepare for," Taiyou nodded, before walking over to the statues and let the blinding light engulf his eyes, overloading his senses. However Issun was rejected from the crossing as powerful electric zap knocked him off of Taiyou. The guardian statues emitted lighting and electricity from the tips of their scepters with the electric current crackling and released a powerful lighting bolt that tossed Issun flying back away. "Your Ka has yet to be judged, mortal. Return to the Living and live your life well." The statue spoken to Issun with a foreboding baritone striking an echo effect that convinced him not to push his luck.

"Guess we should have expected this," Taiyou sighed. "This IS the way to the afterlife. It only makes sense mortals can't crossover unless they're well...dead. Sorry Issun, I think you'll need to wait here for now."

"Good luck Chibi! I'll be busy putting out THE FIRE ON MY HEAD HELP!" Issun bounced around panicking, going absolutely ballistic trying to put out the fire that was burning his lady bug shaped helmet. As for Taiyou, he soon emerged on the other side of the gateway finding himself in the Field of Reeds, Aaru.

A rolling plain of endless reeds and wheat, where warm summer breeze blow over his fur while the rustling of the reeds were calm soothing music to him. The sun bear down on him and the plain giving a tranquil, serene place for him to explore. He saw in the center of Aaru was a temple complex with an open air throne room facing Eastward. In the sky, he saw the birds flew around gracefully, but these had no beaks, in their places were golden burial masks with distinctively humanlike features. They spoke to each other in eerie feminine voices echoing through the masks.

"So this is Aaru…" Taiyou mused. "Rather eerie for an afterlife that isn't damnation," he frowned. "Whatever the case, I need to hurry."

As Taiyou hurried along, sprinted through the Field of Reeds, he passed by grain silos and Royal Bakery of the realm. As he came closer to the Temple, he heard the sound of Egyptian prayers and offerings, the chanting of incantations echoed through the air. The place appeared to be filled with people ranging from priests, scribes, court officials to commoners and servants gathered in a banquet hall.

The throne room itself appeared to have a pair of fountains on either sides of the main causeway leading towards Nefertiti's throne. The ponds were filled with lotuses and lilypads while then a carpet was rolled before the throne to bring offerings to Nefertiti's spirit in the Afterlife.

Taiyou took in the scene for a moment, before walking forward, his offering in hand. Walking to where the offerings were being given, he placed it among the other offerings. "Perhaps with this she will come," he frowned, readying his weapons. There was a very real chance this was going to devolve into a fight.

Once the offering was placed on the ground, a brilliant radiant and from which Nefertiti emerged. Still bearing the wound Anubis inflicted upon her from their earlier battle, the Shadow of Nefertiti brandished her twin daggers Deadly Duet and twirled them in hands facing Taiyou with her stilted face like a greyed out and worn golden burial mask.

"I see you intend to fight," Taiyou frowned. "I don't expect this to work, but won't you consider talking instead of fighting?" he offered.

The Shadow of Nefertiti didn't reply, not a word escaped her mouth, instead she zigzagged around Taiyou with her blades at the ready. Once she was close enough to him, she quickly popped off a cluster of Cherry Bombs around Taiyou and made a powerful jump kick on his chest. She then slashed at Taiyou repeatedly before letting the bombs explode around him, sending the commoners and nobles below running out of the temple.

The movement was fast and Taiyou barely managed to block with his reflector, the momentum carrying him back, and sending him rolling on the ground, his helmet flying off. He coughed a little from the smoke, but quickly got back on his feet. "You're fast...this is going to be a challenge," he frowned, but quickly drew his new sword. "But that's not going to stop me." With that he charged forward.

Nefertiti didn't relent as she charged forward, stomping on Taiyou and pushed him down onto the floor stabbing him repeatedly with her Deadly Duets before jumping off. She then circled around him like a predator on the prowl. She hunched over and sidestepped around before swinging her blades in taunting manners.

Taiyou grunted as he blocked what he could, and soon parried and countered. The biggest problem was her speed, and as it was, the fact she could use Cherry Bombs wasn't helping either. The armor he was wearing helped lessen the damage, but it wasn't blocking too much.

The battle would only drag on into a stalemate before Taiyou might be defeated. He noticed however that the Shadow of Nefertiti seem to relent from stepping into the sun for long. Instead she hopped back and forth, in and out of the shades and shadows.

She kept going at it trying to get up close to him and stab him with her blades, when Taiyou took a side step near a golden mirror, this had his innate sunlight reflected off of it into Nefertiti's face, blinding her in the process. She shrieked out with her wrists and hands shielding her face from the blinding light. That was when an idea dawned on him, an idea to defeat the Shadow of Nefertiti for good hopefully.

He once again cast the world in a canvas like texture with an ink dipped brush circling in the sky drawing a sun, this created a Sunrise in the already perpetually serene and tranquil Aaru blinding Nefertiti's face long enough for Taiyou to quickly pounce on her face, slamming his shield against her face. While stunted, she flailed around aimlessly while Taiyou was able to slash her across her back and drive his blade into her chest. And for good measure, he dragged her into the light, and watched her burn in it as well.

"Rest in peace!" he grunted when she finally stopped struggling and faded away into the light.

Nefertiti's Shadow shrieked and howled in an otherworldly wail as she disintegrated into countless particles of light floating into the air. In her wake, Taiyou saw one of his Brush techniques flew back to him and slammed into his chest with his divine marking became brighter and more vibrant, regaining some of their former glory.

He now had his cherry bomb brush technique back in his hand and Aaru was safe once more. His armor however suffered some scratches, dented and twisted sections. Some more were cinched by Cherry Bomb blasts, but he was overall triumphant.

However, before he could celebrate, he heard the footsteps of Jackal Guard warriors surrounding the throne room with the Pentakosiarch and an Inquisitor walking in. The Pentakosiarch growled frustratingly while the Inquisitor slammed his scepter's hilt against the floor. "You've caused enough trouble already. Time to leave." Said the Inquisitor in a commanding tone to Taiyou.

"I apologize. I only wanted to ensure this shadow rests in peace," Taiyou said apologetically.

"Take that up to lord Anubis." The Pentakosiarch ordered sternly to Taiyou, "Now return to the Duat, under escort." He stated before proceeded to escort Taiyou out of Aaru and back to the Duat. Once they've returned, Taiyou found Issun tied up in chains inside a little box and held up by a Jackal Guard commander. "Hey Chibi you're still alive! Thank goodness you're back now please tell these guys I totally did not deface a priceless statue of a green skinned deity because I thought their artwork needs my touch!" Issun pleaded to Taiyou.

Taiyou gave him a flat look and face palmed. "I apologize greatly for whatever he did. This is his first time outside of our lands, and he did not study the culture beforehand."

"What!? I definitely studied my foreign culture before I got here! Honest! I definitely did not snooze while reading about the dust bowl that is Egypt! Uh… shouldn't have said that?" Issun sputtered nervously, the expression on the Commander's face apparently said all that Taiyou need to know and that they weren't welcomed here despite the effort. "Leave." He uttered tersely before tossing the cage to Taiyou's hand with a key then showed them the way out of the Duat.

"I can't believe you actually went and defaced the local art," Taiyou said tiredly, unlocking the cage. "I understand the style is different, but keep in mind this is THEIR land and their culture. We are visitors and thus we need to respect that."

"Okay okay okay. Sheesh. Sorry kiddo, I got carried away with my excitement showing off what our artwork can do to these farmers and bakers of the desert." Said Issun as Taiyou walked past his work of "art", a statue of Osiris completely ruined by Issun's black ink painted on Osiris green skin, with the statue now in pieces, possibly struck by lighting or thunder out of fury.

Taiyou groaned audibly. "Just be glad that's the worst that happened. If any of them decided to take direct retribution, you know I literally can't do anything about it, right? I really don't want to have to tell mother that she needs a new envoy..."

"Alright sorry Chibi. Anyway let's get back to doggo Anubis and your girlfriend Kassandra. Maybe the old guy is up to his feet now hopefully." Said Issun as the two disappear back into the inky black corridor of the Am-Tuat heading back to the plain of the living. "She's not my girlfriend," Taiyou said flatly.


	4. Chapter 4: Half-blood, full heart

Chapter 4: Half blood, full heart

After returning from the Duat, booted out by the Jackal Guards there for Issun's misdemeanor, Taiyou and Issun were now crossing the Nile River to get back to the Eastern riverbank.

"I hope things calm down now that that spirit was calmed," Taiyou sighed. "And if nothing else, I got back the Cherry Bomb Brush."

"Bagh! Think nothing of it Chibi, things could have gotten worse. Like we could have been zapped by a revenant or something." Issun insisted while bouncing on the felucca that Taiyou was rowing on the Nile back to the Eastern riverbank. But as he was rowing, he noticed a shadow flying overhead, when he looked up at the sky, he saw an avian silhouette flying towards the Temple of Amun where Anubis and Kassandra were.

To make matters stranger, he saw the figure appear to have a humanoid figure and the athletic build of a grown man while sporting two large feathery wings along with falcon like claws and talons on his noticeably bird-like leg. "Hey who is that bird guy? Don't tell me that's a tengu assassin dressed up to enter Egypt!" Issun bounced up and down spouting incredulously.

"I don't know...but I think we need to get back quickly," Taiyou frowned, speeding up. "Still though...why do I feel like I've seen him before somewhere…?"

"Who knows, maybe he's here to start trouble or something. Row faster Chibi!" Issun called out while bouncing up and down, he however did not know what they were about to run into once they were back. As soon as Taiyou came ashore with Issun, the two ran straight for the temple on the north end of the city.

Once inside of the massive awesome temple of Amun, Taiyou and Issun were greeted to the sound of a jubilant and concerned voice echoing through the hallway, apparently a conversation was going on between Anubis with the stranger. "Aaagh! Not to tight!" Anubis growled in pain, prompting the avian deity to shush at him gently. "Now now brother, don't be too pushy, finest medicine is the most bitter." Said the avian as he was seen applying a patch of linen cloth with herbal medicine on Anubis wound causing him to groan.

"There you go, give it a night and the wound should heal, mother has been very worried about you so she asked me to deliver this." Said the avian with Anubis nodding. "I apologize for concerning her." Said Anubis, to which the avian shook his head. "Nonsense, what are families for? You're practically a blessing Fate granted to me." he spoke in a jubilant voice before hugging Anubis into a tight snuggle, wrapping his arms around Anubis's sides and rubbed his forehead into the jackal's own.

"...okay...what did we just walk in on?" was Taiyou's dry question as he and Issun stood at the doorway. "Though, now that I heard that, I remember now. You're Horus, right?"

Hearing Taiyou's voice, Anubis and Horus turned around noticing Taiyou's presence in the chamber prompting the latter to cock his head to the side in surprise. "Oh? And who are you supposed to be? You don't look like a traveler or anyone from around here now do you?" Horus asked curiously rubbing his chin while kneeling down to Taiyou's level to observe him.

"Horus… this is Taiyou, son of Amaterasu and currently under my watch and care." Said Anubis in a blunt manner, causing Horus to stand straight up. "Oh so you're the son of my beloved brother's girlfriend isn't it? A pleasure to meet you a fellow sun god to be. I am Horus the Avenger, Great Black One and rightful heir of Egypt's throne." The falcon deity shook Taiyou's hand enthusiastically.

"Well...I wouldn't call Anubis my mother's boyfriend, but that's accurate I suppose," Taiyou sighed, before smiling a little. "it's an honor to meet you, Horus, and yes, I'm Taiyou, Prince of the Sun, the Young Sun, and various other monikers that basically focuses on how I'm the son of Amaterasu," he added the last bits a bit dryly.

Anubis coughed out a bit, catching their attention and Horus went over with a bowl of hot soup in hand along with a wooden spoon to feed Anubis. "There there now, take it easy and slowly. Don't worry about a thing, your brother is here for you now." Said Horus as he gently spoon fed Anubis like a nurse, which prompted Issun to jump up and down spouting off with an incredulous tone. "Wait what on Earth is going on here? It looks like the Crown Prince of Egypt is practically a sensitive womanly heir to the throne? He's practically a wet nurse for Anubis there!"

Hearing this, Horus took notice of Issun and reacted with a disgusted "Eek" escaping his beaks. "What is that? A talking flea? Have you noticed this bizarre creature bouncing up and down your body, Taiyou? You must be itched by it, let me get rid of it for you." Horus insisted before looking for something to catch Issun with, much to Anubis's dismay and annoyance. "He's the Envoy of Ammy brother, don't." The jackal stated sternly.

"And as much as he can have a foot in the mouth disease, yes, please don't get rid of him," Taiyou sighed tiredly, while Issun was hopping and glowing red in indignation.

"Eww, how did he become the envoy?" Horus asked and cringe. "Beats me." Anubis replied. "Kassandra!" Anubis called out, and at that moment Kassandra came into the room with a golden plate carrying some dinner for Horus. "Gracious, your bloodline is traceable to a Chimera." She remarked dryly to Horus and Anubis as she placed the plate onto the wooden table, the jackal coughed out. "I heard that." Said Anubis with a gloomy tone.

He then struggled to get out of bed slowly as he had his feet, walking in stiff fashion, Horus was quick however to pick his brother up, wrapping Anubis left arm around his neck and shoulder while Horus right arm held Anubis by his abdomen up to walk towards the table. "Here you go. Do you need me tonight as well?" Horus asked as he set Anubis down on the wooden chair. "No that won't be necessary." Horus however scoffed and smirked at the answer, "I'll take that as a yes then." He chuckled humorously.

"Speaking of which, I managed to beat Nefertiti, so I think she's gone back to resting in peace...I hope," Taiyou spoke up. "I also managed to take back the Cherry Bomb brush, so at least some of my power is back," he added with a small sigh.

Anubis grunted hearing this and pounded his chest hearing this. "You did? Excellent, that should lift my concerns somewhat. Though I did learn of a statue's destruction from one of my captains." Said Anubis with a glare turned at Issun, who now stood on the table with intense sweat drops knowing full well what he did.

"W-well… It was… an accident. Really! There's nothing to it!" He defended himself in a pleading tone, much to Anubis annoyance and Horus anger. "Oh great, you vandalized a statue, vagrant! How dare you?" Before Horus can launch himself into a raging tantrum, Anubis grabbed Horus tail feather causing the crown prince to calm down. "Sorry brother, I suppose you're the brain of the operation…" Said Horus with a sigh as he sat down to the right of Anubis.

"I also apologize for that. Normally I'd have Issun with me at all times, both as a support AND to keep him out of trouble," Taiyou sighed. "But in this case I was the only one allowed into Aaru."

"Aaru? Isn't that the Egyptian equivalent of Elysium?" Kassandra asked Anubis, to which the Jackal nodded to her question. "Yes, only the righteous of the dead may enter after passing the Weighing of the Heart ceremony." Horus however strongly cracked his knuckles and neck, "I take it that the little bug was zapped away from the gate and vandalized a statue for payback." The crown prince stated with a grumble.

"He did that while I was away," Taiyou sighed.

"Figures." Anubis huffed out with a grumble. "I hope your mother can bring some sense into his head." Anubis stated with a sigh as he enjoyed his soup while Kassandra sat and had her dinner next to Taiyou. Horus took notice and perked his head up, the crown prince then burped out in a rather excited tone. "Wait, I think I know where you two are going here. You two are in love isn't it? I see this wherever I go!" He then laughed or rather, made chicken like cuckling of a laugh.

"...did that laugh seriously come out of his mouth?" Taiyou blinked, bewildered.

Horus patted his chest as he calmed down from the initial outburst. "Why yes indeed. It runs in the family, from Ra down to me." Horus stated nonchalantly as he leaned back on his chair lounging.

"...okay," Taiyou blinked. "And no...we're not together or anything," he added, though when he did, he and Kassandra looked away.

Kassandra looked away from Taiyou trying not to make eye contact to further reinforce Horus assessment of the two. "I don't see Eros arrow on his backside." Said Kassandra with a cold huff. "You'll love it eventually, take me for example, I went to Baktria just to find a bride and I got two for the price of one." He cockily and excitedly boasted to Taiyou and Kassandra.

Kassandra in turn looked at Horus with a more skeptical eye and asked him. "Oh you? I know it's legal for you to have a harem but I don't know how did you woo anyone?" Hearing this, Anubis coughed a bit, knowing what went down in the trip. "Well let me tell you all a good adventure of mine, shall I? You see it was not long ago when I visited Baktria with Anubis to hunt for my first bride." He began telling the story while Anubis rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Oh boy here we go again…"

"I'm guessing this happens a lot?" Taiyou hazarded a guess.

Horus in turn keep up telling his story to Taiyou and Kassandra, giving them the juicy scoop of the prince's exploits. "On the contrary, that was only my first adventure. Most of my life has been spent beating my uncle to reclaim the throne." He chuckled light-heartedly. "See when we arrived at Baktria, we met a clan of gold eagle avians living in the Shah-i-kot who graciously welcomed us in with open arms and wings." He then appeared to swoon with his face looking up at the ceiling. "And then I met her… Roxanna of Baktria. The tribal princess and daughter of their chieftain Ardushah. I asked for her hand in marriage and her family challenged me three things." Said Horus as he paused a bit for Taiyou and Kassandra to let the information sink in.

"And I assume you won all of them and thus had your intended bride jumping into your arms?" Kassandra said dryly.

"Eeeeeeyup!" Horus remarked with a proud and boastful tone patting his chest. "At the cost of the would-be father-in-law killed while hunting a golden basilisk and him having to wrestle the brother-in-law." Anubis added, causing Horus's prideful face to melt away almost instantly. "Well...uh...that was... unintended because… well I didn't realize the Basilisk would go right for Ardushah like that." He stuttered and sweat nervously, seemingly suffering from traumatic memories seemingly like he was breaking down. "It wasn't my fault… I want to bring them all back home safe and sound. But nothing ever goes according to plan. Ra was disappointed to hear of Ardushah's death, I think he blames me for that failure." Horus sighed out rubbing his forehead.

"Why were you even fighting a Basilisk in the first place?" Taiyou asked dryly, ears flat. "And why was he close enough to be the first target at that?"

The more Taiyou asked, the more uncomfortable Horus became as he struggled to piece together complete sentences to tell them what went down. "It was a hunt, a trial by Ardushah to see if the great crown prince of Egypt was up to snuff for the tribe. I was to hunt and kill the Basilisk plaguing both them and the Baktrians, but…" He paused however before standing up from the table and back away into the shadows. of the room.

"I'll be outside… preferably alone." Said Horus as he gulped thickly then walk away from them before flying off somewhere in Thebes. "You two should go to bed, I'll find him and maybe… talk some sense into him." Anubis pushed the chair back as he then used his scepter as a walking cane, slowly finding his way out and possibly finding Horus.

"...I think we just made a mistake…" Taiyou frowned.

"...I think you are right…" Kassandra sighed. They DID prod him a bit too much. "Think we should apologize?"

"Maybe?" Taiyou said, not quite sure.

"Perhaps when he comes back. Without Hermes wings I doubt we can actually reach wherever that he might be now." Said Kassandra as she walked with Taiyou back to their room in the temple to sleep while Horus was perching on a nearby ledge on the roof of the temple, looking at them. A teardrop fell down along his left eye and touched the ground, giving off a radiant glow of the moon as he quietly sit alone on the rooftop overlooking Thebes. "It wasn't my fault...was it?" He sniffled and sobbed quietly.

It didn't take long for Anubis to find Horus following the teardrop and the unnatural glow of the moon in the garden of the temple. Spotting Horus perching on the roof, Anubis sighed out and looked up at the avian prince, before long, Horus flew down to Anubis with his head still looking downward. Knowing his brother's traumas, Anubis didn't need a single word but a hand wrapped around Horus shoulder before leading him back to their room.

[hr]

The next morning came with Taiyou being the first to wake up next to Kassandra, the two were sleeping on the same bed the whole night as the temple didn't have much room to begin with. He yawned when the sun rose from the horizon and shone its rays through the temple's windows and balcony. Taiyou yawned a little, looking to his side at the still sleeping Kassandra. She honestly looked rather beautiful even now...but he held himself back. Did he have feelings for Kassandra? Or was he just attracted to her? He honestly wasn't sure, but right now wasn't the time to think about that.

While Taiyou woke up next to Kassandra, Anubis himself was apparently missing from the temple's ground, he was somewhere else and Taiyou didn't know where to find him beside a note written by Anubis and left by the doorstep of Taiyou's door. Once he opened the scroll to read it, he found a message by Anubis warning him about where he was.

Found Horus, had to escort him to an inn down in Swenet, south of Thebes. I'll be back once he is better. Breakfast should be ready, just ask the priests but be wary of Isidorah, she's suspiciously cooped up in the basement.

It was a rather brief note, but straight to the point enough for Taiyou. Once Kassandra woke up he may have to share with her the information before they both set out to find Horus, if the streets and dirt roads around the area was safe enough for travel. Then he heard Kassandra turning on her bed, sighing out and tugging at the bedsheet and pillows.

She stirred and slowly opened her eyes. "Morning already?" she asked, sitting up.

"Yeah, the sun has risen. Anubis says breakfast should be ready, but after that we may want to go find him and Horus," Taiyou said.

"Agree. We pried his heart a bit too hard." Said Kassandra as she stood up from the bed, letting the bedsheet slide down her back and let Taiyou have a look at her furry backside, a perfectly proportioned physical beauty of a woman, a Spartan woman.

She was not wearing much in the way of formal, let alone casual clothing, only her bras and undies were on her during the evening that they slept together. But now that she had awaken, Kassandra went over to the bathroom and began her clean up for the morning. "Did he tell us where to find him and Horus? I hate to torture the ears and mouths of the city with the same questions all day." Said Kassandra in a dry and sarcastic tone.

"They'll be in an inn in Swenet," Taiyou said, walking to the bathroom to freshen up too.

"Swenet? For a moment there I thought you were saying Swan-net." Said Kassandra behind the shades of the bathroom, as Taiyou came closer, he could see through the crevices of the shades and saw Kassandra's naked form with water washing down her grey fur, he felt enamored by her look, enraptured by her charming witty humor.

"You want to join me?" Kassandra asked Taiyou gently before turning around looking at him through the shades, stealing a peek at his firm pectorals and broad shoulders, not to mention his chiseled abs. Fitting for a god or demigod indeed.

Taiyou gulped thickly. If he were honest, he would, but...he also respected her...yet she WAS offering. "Are...are you sure? I mean...we barely know each other and…" he fumbled for words.

"You have exactly 2 minutes before I exit the bathroom, so if you feel like it, go ahead." She dared him playfully before proceeding back to clean herself, now she was busy cleaning her fur with a towel before putting on her undies and bras. Then she left the bathroom, passing by Taiyou to put on her dress for the walk to Swenet. "I suppose I'll wait for you by the mess hall with the priests. At least the servants of Amun here welcome strangers like Zeus." Said Kassandra as she went downstairs and let Taiyou wash himself before joining her. While in the bath Taiyou pressed his head against the wall...a little harder than he'd intended, honestly feeling conflicted. His head was telling him he made the right choice...too bad his slightly hard member was making it clear it didn't think he made the right choice.

Once Taiyou had washed up and put on some proper clothing, these being the bronze cuirass breastplate given to him by Kassandra, the helmet remained on his head for good measures in case he ran into another one of the Shadows while the Spartan shield was mounted on his back with the Golden Wolf sheathed in its scabbard.

Taiyou checked his sandals before finally walking out with Kassandra to Swenet. They followed the footpath leading them out of Thebes to the countryside surrounding the city with the farmers there working around the field cultivating their crops of wheat, barley, and others. Swenet was further down the road by a large farm estate that Taiyou could see perch on the high ground overlooking the fields. "I bet 10 Drachmae that Horus has this as his private property." Said Kassandra.

"No deal," Taiyou said with a laugh.

"Bagh! These guys are so rich I'm pretty sure this entire kingdom is THEIR private property that they divide for themselves." Said Issun with a huff as they came closer to Swenet. Once there, the two found Anubis out in the front lawn sitting on the ground meditating. The jackal remain unnervingly quiet and unshaken despite the two coming into the yard. "Hey! Doggo wake up! It's Taiyou here to see you! Hello? Can you even hear us?" Issun shouted out to Anubis as he hopped up and down repeatedly.

Anubis remained still as a statue with his eyes shut and his legs curled up in a meditative stance much to Issun's annoyance before he threw himself into a fit of rage. "HEY! DON'T YOU HEAR ME!? SOME GUARDIAN YOU ARE, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE KID YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BABYSIT IS HERE!" Issun shouted out louder only to see Anubis dissipated into shadow and dust and black smoke slowly blew away in the wind. "So you read the note?" Anubis voice asked them from behind with Kassandra and Taiyou turned around seeing Anubis standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

"Yes we did," Taiyou nodded, surprised at the trick. "Is Horus alright? We...wanted to apologize for pressing the issue last night," he sighed.

Anubis nodded to them before stepping in, leading them inside of the estate, when he opened the door into the building with the sunlight shine inside, they saw Horus was sitting by the wooden table rubbing his forehead with an empty goblet of beer. "You're back?" the avian deity sighed out seeing Taiyou. "The evening wasn't pleasant to say the least… I needed to be alone. With some beer and Anubis." Said Horus with a drowsy voice as he forced himself to stand up and put the goblet into a nearby sink drawing constant running water from nearby streams.

"Yeah...we want to apologize for last night. We were pressing on an uncomfortable issue," Taiyou said apologetically.

"Yes, it was wrong of us to keep pressing the issue," Kassandra nodded in agreement, also apologetic.

Horus sulked and sighed as he rose up from the table and grumbled, he wiped his beak and cheeks of the beer smeared on his feather before swallowing his pride. "Right, I should stop wallowing now, it's been a year now since Ardushah's death. There's nothing more I could do for the old man." He sighed out then grab his halberd sitting by the corner of the house and mount it on his back .

"Come on, let's get this done, the sooner we are done here, the sooner I can introduce you all to my wife and brother-in-law." Said Horus as he began to man up and walk out of the house with Taiyou and Kassandra, followed behind by Anubis who was still holding his scepter like a walking cane. They first exit Swenett and walked along the dirt road back to Thebes, along the way Horus kept looking forward, seemingly staring into oblivion without looking back. Possibly so he won't let himself be plagued by any concerns or distracted by reminders of his perceived failures.

"I'll look forward to that," Taiyou said, hoping to keep the atmosphere light.

Kassandra however nudged Taiyou gently before whispering to his ear, "Careful now, words no matter how light can weigh down great men." Said Kassandra with a caution. As they walked back to Thebes however, the quartet saw a strange light appeared in front of them. A gold ray followed by a whirling vortex, from which emerged a towering bulky warrior.

A heavily armored Shadow of a Pharaoh, dark as night with faint traces of gold on his armor, a golden funeral mask covered his face with a blue crown on his head. In his hand was a mace with golden spikes and two wings on either sides. Horus seeing this gasped along with Anubis, who coughed more, "T-th-that's… Pharaoh Rameses II, the Son of Ra." Horus stuttered in surprise and he saw Rameses swinging his mace around striking at Horus, forcing him to use his wings to dash to the side.

"Looks like he's raring for a fight. Let's give him one!" Issun said, drawing Denkomaru.

"You mean WE will fight him," Taiyou said in amusement, but pulled out his weapon as well.

"I will strike you down!" Horus exclaimed as dashed forward with his halberd striking across Rameses face stunning him in the process. Rameses quickly recovered and used his mace to summon Inferno striking Horus's wings with it.

Horus then used his Whirlwind magical power, he summoned a small tornado blowing Rameses up into the air before his wings striking the Shadow with a gust of wind, causing the Shadow to staggered back for Taiyou to strike with his own flame being blown back at him.

"He's got the Inferno Brush?!" Taiyou gasped, but quickly countered the flames, dispersing them before he ran forward, and landed several strikes, while jumping away from a strike of the mace...but not before leaving a few Cherry Bombs, which exploded in Ramses's face.

Rameses staggered back further, only to rush forward at Taiyou trying to slam into him. Anubis however saw this and fired his Mummify attack on the Shadow, tying him up in the process and gave Taiyou time to back away from the Shadow before striking with his Golden Wolf sword.

The blade caught fire and struck home at Rameses chest armor, searing off some sections of its segmented scales. "Let me fight Kassandra! It is my duty to stop the Shadow!" Anubis growled while having Kassandra holding him back. "Not when you're beaten up like this!" Kassandra protested before jabbing at Anubis's stomach and dragged him away while he was grunting in pain. The peasants around them began to disperse in terror fearful for their lives.

"That girl has no fear does she?" Issun said dryly at what just happened.

"Starting to think that too," Taiyou sweat dropped.

"Taiyou look out!" Horus called out to Taiyou but he was a bit slow with Taiyou being struck in his chest by the mace of Rameses and it tossed him against a nearby tree. Horus quickly leapt forward and flew towards Taiyou grabbing him by the shoulder. As the falcon deity made contact, he gave Taiyou a rush of energy and healing factor causing some of his wounds to be healed while others were slowly regenerating.

"Don't let yourself be distracted in battles." Said Horus as he then helped Horus up to his feet before turning to face Rameses. "Watch and learn Taiyou, I have something to teach you." Said the falcon prince with a smirk and a cocky smile on his face as then drew his twin swords.

They were twin Xiphos swords that he swung them around, twirling them before heading towards Rameses. He rushed forward and slammed both swords into Rameses's chest, stunning him briefly before pulling them out. Horus then landed his powerful kick at Rameses chest throwing him back away from Taiyou and Horus.

"What was that?" Taiyou asked in surprise.

"That… was the Avenger." Said Horus with a cocky smirk on his face as he sheathed the swords into his scabbards. The Shadow however did not relent, instead it slammed the mace on the ground, sending a powerful shockwave across the land shaking Taiyou and Horus up before slamming Horus into the nearby mudbrick wall and crashed into the warehouse of farmers. "Should have seen that coming." Horus mumbled frustratingly before kicking the Shadow of Rameses in its chest throwing it out of the warehouse before bursting out.

He then hopped on the ground and glide into the air with a golden bow in his hands with 6 arrows at the ready. One was already aimed at the chest of the Shadow and Horus simply fired his arrows at the Shadow's chest with his arrows piercing the armor segmented scales before following it up with his other arrows.

Rameses being such a tank was able to take up the damages quite easily before using his mace to lob fireballs of Inferno at Horus, the crown prince quickly dodged the incoming attacks before gliding down and made a dive bomb attack on Rameses slamming him in the chest and burying him into the ground.

But while Horus and Taiyou were busy fighting the Shadow of Rameses, Anubis was being dragged off by Kassandra, he grunted and struggled to break free of her grip as they got close to the city's wall. "No let me go Kassandra! I have to face that thing!" Anubis protested as Kassandra dragged him. "You can have a broken leg or two with that demand." Said Kassandra in a demanding tone.

Anubis at this point had lost his patience with her as he then grunted and crouch down with his scepter planting on the ground to brace himself. "Let's wrap this up." Anubis muttered catching Kassandra off-guard before ensnaring her with his Mummify stun attack. "Sorry Kassandra but you've left me no choice." Said Anubis as he then came back out to face the Shadow of Rameses.

As he returned to the site of battle, he saw that Horus and Taiyou were still locked in bitter battles with Rameses, he growled impatiently before he started to levitated into the air like Ra or Thoth. His eyes began to turn cyan and glowed brightly. Anubis shot out an intense ray at Rameses with the intense blast tore through Rameses chest burning the Shadow before it exploded into countless bits of charred particles floating into the sky.

"Well...that was fast," Taiyou blinked, looking at the damage Anubis did. "Were we doing it wrong or is Anubis just that strong?"

Horus coughed out as he landed on his feet talons before patted Taiyou's shoulder. "That's just Anubis for you. He's always that strong with Necromancy, he's your best bet against all things underworld gone rogue." Said the crown prince before he leap forward flying at Anubis and gave his brother a health boost as Anubis landed on his hind legs and came sighed out with his body's wounds seemingly heal. "How's the Lifesteal?" Horus asked with a smirk.

"Tasty, I'll speak nothing more of it." the jackal deity remarked tersely before walking over to Taiyou. "You're alright?" Anubis asked inspecting Taiyou for wounds.

"I'm fine. Even with my diminished strength, I'm not THAT easy to hurt," Taiyou chuckled, right as the orb of light that contained the Inferno Brush floated around him before he absorbed it. "And that's another technique back," he sighed.

Anubis nodded to Taiyou before turning around walking him and Issun back to Thebes without a word more. But as they were returning to Thebes, they found Kassandra hopping towards them wrapped in tight mummification, and she was glaring daggers at Anubis. "What did you do to her doggo?" Issun exclaimed in a stunned and amazed tone.

"...do we want to know?" Taiyou asked flatly.

Anubis snapped his fingers, untying the mummification wrappings from Kassandra allowing her to jab him in his stomach humbling him in the process. "When you wish to ensnare a woman, be sure to knife her as well!" Kassandra scowled Anubis.

"If that's what you wish, perhaps I can entertain you to Egyptian knives." hearing the toxicities of Anubis's words Horus felt the need to break up the fighting and step in between them. "That's enough with the both of you! May I remind you Anubis that you have some duties in Thebes for the time being?" Anubis made as light growl and huffed out in frustration before slowly back off his aggression. "I remember that… let's find the Strategos here, Montu." Anubis conceded.

"Right, let's do that," Taiyou nodded...and pulled Kassandra away a bit, the she-wolf still glaring at Anubis...but eventually shook her head in annoyance and walked on, following the male wolf.

Anubis and Horus would then lead the way for the two youngsters as they came to the palace at the center of the city, a walled off place by the riverbanks of the Nile with strangely enough, human troops guarding the entrance.

These men were native Egyptian from their looks, only they were dressed in Macedonian Greek uniform with linen thorax body armor with Thracian style helmet looking like an upside down stockings. On their faces were golden face masks with beard piece along. Each one were armed with a six meters long Sarissa spear and small peltast shields. "This looks like the place, if the guards, grandstanding palace and pompous imposing view is anything to go by." Horus remarked sarcastically to Taiyou and Kassandra, nudging at their arms.

"You don't care much for this place, do you?" Taiyou remarked dryly, remembering his mom's stories about his dad and Sei-An after he was purified.

"Nah." Horus smirked. "I always like the Nile Delta better. The vibrant life, the many faces, the swampy marshland for crocodile wrestling. Here? It's the humble abode of a certain family member we don't speak about much." Said Horus with a bit of a snide remark as they walked into the palace, only to hear the grumbling and huffing of a deity followed by his footsteps as he walked about back and forth. Passing by the corridors of the well decorated palace and entering a small throne room where an avian deity looking almost identical to Horus sat by a desk working on some papers.

He appeared to be taller than Horus but his crown seems to have a double gold tablet instead of Horus more silo like with mono tablet. When he saw the quartet come in, he immediately stood up and spread his wings out in full glory and in his hands, he brandished a gold spear instead of a scepter. He huffed out and appeared to have a frown on his face as he approached them, namely glaring at Taiyou first and foremost.

"And this is…?" Taiyou trailed off, sensing the animosity.

"This you ask? I am Montu, the God of War! And governor of Thebes Nome. Who are you?" He replied harshly to Taiyou and leered closer to Taiyou and started to notice Issun hopping on Taiyou's head. "Eeek! Disgusting flea, who or what are you and what brings you to Egypt I may ask?" He asked pressuring Taiyou in the process before having Anubis stepping in to pull him away. "That's enough Montu." The jackal deity grumble.

"That's great great great great grand uncle Montu to you, Anubis! Show some respect to your elders!" He pouted and began to hop repeatedly in front of Anubis and Horus much to the latter's embarrassment. "More like Grunkle Montu." Horus puffed out and burst out laughing hysterically. "Get it Grunkle Montu? You have always been grumpy ever since you and Ra have that training session!"

"Somehow I don't think that kind of joke is a good idea right now," Taiyou sweat dropped.

"Ya think? This guy is a steaming warhawk with an attitude problem! What's with this guy?" Issun poured more proverbial oil to the fire as his comment make Montu even madder, steaming red with rage to the point they could see steam venting out of his ears. Taiyou grabbed him in his fist for that comment.

"Should we keep this up, or should we go somewhere else while he cools down?" he asked dryly.

Montu then slammed the hilt of his spear to the ground sending a mini tremor through the room forcing them all falling over themselves and slammed the doors shut. "You will stay, because I say so! Got it?" He growled viciously before grabbing Horus by the ear and pinched him, "You have a lot to answer for Horus! Bringing foreigners to our realm! The last time we have anyone like that it was an invasion by the Hyksos, the pompous Persian who disrespected the sacred Apis bull! And oh, do I need to mention those obnoxious monotheists from the Levants!?" He slapped Horus across the face repeatedly bouncing his head back and forth between both hands of the taller and more muscular warbird.

Horus then held up both hands defending himself, pushing Montu back away from him. "Enough! He's an official guess, under Anubis guardian and by order of the Pharaoh Ra, you will respect his presence or be sacked from your position! Do I, the crown prince, make myself clear?" Horus bellowed out aggressively to Montu who looked away huffing out to Horus apparently conceding his point. "Very well, I will tolerate his presence in my Nome. But know that I will not relent if he causes trouble." Said Montu with his finger pointing up at Horus face who crossed both hands looking at his great grand uncle. "He won't. Just mind yourself first."

"I have no intentions of causing trouble," Taiyou affirmed...before opening his hand and looking pointedly at Issun. "That means NOT doing whatever we please just because we feel like it or it clashes with our personal aesthetics, is that understood, Issun?"

"Uh yeah crystal clear! Yes siree! No painting things with different artstyle than what your artisans want." Issun nervously replied trying to deny his work of "art" in the Duat while Anubis facepalmed and rub his eyes, prompting Kassandra to pat his shoulder. Montu however continued his frowning and raised an eyebrow before turning away, sighing and sitting down on his desk. "Horus, are you aware of the Shadows in Thebes lately? I've been having reports from the people that they are terrorizing the folks from their routines."

Horus nodded to Montu and took a step back and pointed to Taiyou with a gracious showman gesture. "Oh yes indeed I have been listening to reports about them. And also the reports of their destruction at the paws of this fine Prince of the Sun if I may add." He cockily grin at Montu who look at Taiyou with a dumbfounded face completely taken off guard by the revelation.

"Him? Why aren't you doing anything about that Anubis? Necromancy and the Duat are your specialties." Anubis hearing this huffed out at Montu before replying with his own defense. "Unless you haven't noticed from the God's Wife Isidorah, I was ambushed and left critically wounded so I have to entrust it to the boy's paws." He grumbled at Montu who then looked at Taiyou with curiosity in his face.

"I understand you have...reservations...of my presence here, but if you would allow it, I would be more than happy to continue assisting Horus and Anubis in this endeavor," Taiyou said respectfully.

Montu let out a rather softer tone as he sulk and lounge on his chair looking at Taiyou. "Fine, very well. I won't risk open war just because my pride is trampled by the Prince of the Sun's presence." Anubis nodded to Montu before replying. "He is the son of Amaterasu, next in line for her throne if you had read Ra's letters to all governors." Hearing this Montu facepalmed himself realizing that he probably didn't read the letter warning him of the arrival of the boy. "Darn it… a thousand apologies young one, it's my fault for being careless." Said Montu as he then stood up and walked over to Taiyou and Kassandra with both hands tucked behind his back. "Now then… what do you know so far of these Shadows? Notice anything they have in common?" He asked them gently for the first time since they met.

"Well...so far it seems they've been disturbed from their rest, and are always royalty for some reason. That and for some reason, they all have one of my Brush Techniques with them," Taiyou said with a frown. "That would imply Kek has something to do with them at the very least."

"All royals. That's the defining characteristics. Mortals once had pharaohs to rule in our stead. They are the conduit, the link between the gods and mortals. Until… they grew weak." He paused for a moment with a frown on his face, seemingly out of being reminded of unpleasant times. "That was when Ra stepped in and rule them all directly. You've stopped Nefertiti, and Rameses so far. But that's just handling the twigs and branches. You've yet to tackle the root."

"Okay fancy muscle bird, what are you implying? Like there's something tying them all together beside Kek?" Issun asked impatiently hopping up and down on Taiyou's head. That earned him another clap.

"I'm REALLY sorry about him," Taiyou sighed tiredly, bowing in apology. "He's my family's Envoy, and when it comes to his job, he does it very well...unfortunately he's a questionable guest at best…"

"Hmmph. Questionable choice in employment as well." He added as he paced back and forth around them. "Take notice something. Did Isidorah give a speech against tomb robbers? Did she tell the masses to turn in smugglers if they wish to be spared?" He asked them, sounding oddly analytic and observant, something that was not known for a god of war. "She did. When I was brought to her temple, she was giving a speech to the masses. Oddly timed just minutes after Nefertiri ambushed me and bled me hard." Anubis added.

"Are you suggesting this might be connected?" Kassandra asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In fact...are you suggesting Isidorah knew this would happen?" Taiyou mused.

Montu nodded to them both. "How clever a priestess to stab her god in his back. Not." Kassandra remarked, much to Taiyou's chagrin. "There's a market in Thebes, to the south east of town, right in front of the temple. You'll find plenty to buy there. Including things that will turn Isidorah's skin crawling." Said Montu with his back turned to them. "Know this… there are more things there with dubious origins than you think." He finished, "Anubis, take them to the market. Horus, stay here with me. I have something I need you for." Said Montu to which Anubis nodded to him.

Anubis then sighed out and gestured for Taiyou and Kassandra to come with him first leaving Horus behind to face Montu. "Alright then, let's go you two. Whatever Montu wants with Horus is best left to the imagination." Said Anubis as he led them out of the governor's palace and walked to the southern central part of town. In the tight narrow streets of Thebes, they saw a market with stalls selling numerous artifacts and relics.

Amulets, charms, idols, statues, divine relics sacred to the pharaohs were on display. These were no doubt stolen from tombs, fenced items that are on display for the highest bidder. Kassandra didn't seem to be interested in these, rather she took notice of the nearby blacksmith working various swords and blades for spears for the garrison troops of Thebes.

"Buy yourself a blade. So you can stick me with it." Anubis stated and handed a bag of Drachma coins to Kassandra. "Gladly." She winked at him teasingly before going over to the blacksmith immediately bought a short stabbing Xiphos sword. He then handed her a scabbard but lifted his wig to scratch his head in perplex. "Jeez did he have to do that?" Issun irked out.

"It's a little hard to scratch your head when you have a wig in the way," Taiyou shrugged. He honestly didn't see anything wrong with that. "Besides, there are worse things than fake hair."

"Now then if you two are done with looking perplexed at the good folks, perhaps we can start looking for clues." Anubis reminded them with Kassandra yawned and nodded to him. "I know Anubis, I know. Look for clues, tomb raiders and smugglers." She then went with Taiyou towards the nearby stall where they saw the vendor there was selling a collection of gold sphinx idols with some amulets and statues of Ra and Montu. "You want to buy something neb? Nefti has everything for you from amulets to idols." Said the vendor as he showed them his wares.

"Do you have anything to protect against the Shadows that have been showing up lately? Some protective talismans or the like?" Taiyou asked.

"Those? I don't think I have one to help you. Hmmm let's see now." He searched around his stall and boxes there but all he had were simple amulets for mortals and idols at some higher prices. Overall not quite what they were looking for. He looked at them and shook his head in regret. "I'm afraid not here. This is just all I have for the peasants and folks in the city. But I can tell you who can help you get what you want." Said the vendor before he glanced around left and right, fearing that someone might listen in, seeing that there was no one nearby who might threaten him, not even Anubis was there, he then leaned in closer to them and whispered to Taiyou and Kassandra. "There is this smuggler named Sutekh, he helps me obtain my wares from tombs of nobles and pharaohs. Best to find him in the Necropolis on the other side of the river."

"Not even going to question the part where those are looted," Taiyou said dryly, before sighing. "Okay, where do we find him?"

"Look for him in the Necropolis for the pharaohs, he seems to like looking for treasures there. Let's hope he doesn't get caught by the guards. Finding him should be easy since he has red hair. Practically the only one in Egypt right now to have it." The vendor finished before slowly slipping away cautiously trying to avoid running into anybody who might question him on anything or engage in long conversations with him. Once he was out of sight, Anubis emerged from hiding behind a corner and came to Taiyou and Kassandra with his hands planted on his hips. "Well?" He asked.

"We need to look for a boy with red hair. He neglected to mention red as blood or red as dye." Kassandra sarcastically remarked and Anubis nodded to her. "Right. Then I'll take you two across the river. Let's find him by the Necropolis for pharaohs then." Said Anubis. The jackal would then take a boat with Taiyou and Kassandra and sailed across the river on a small felucca, once they reached the other side and make their way up to the necropolis, Anubis gestured for them to split up and combed the area for clues of smuggler's activities. "Keep your eyes peeled for holes, debris and digging tools such as chisels and hammers." Anubis reminded Taiyou before cautioning him. "Some might not go quietly"

"When we find them, what are we going to do exactly? Find out every major tomb they looted so we have an idea WHICH Shadow might appear, or ask them if they have any ties to Isidorah?" Taiyou asked, wanting to make sure he got the full details.

"If in doubt look there." Anubis pointed Taiyou towards a collection of tents perching on a high hill overlooking the steep ridgeline of the riverbanks. "That's the tomb overseer, if a robber is here you can bet the overseer took a bribe." He stated sarcastically before walking into one of the nearby tombs searching for clues, leaving Taiyou with Kassandra. "Oh let him sniff for clues the old fashion way himself. We'll go straight for the top. Fish rots at the head first you know." Kassandra muse to Taiyou before taking him with her straight up to the tent of the overseer.

There they saw two silhouettes arguing with one another and when they perked their heads in to see, it was Isidorah arguing with a rather overweight Egyptian woman with darker skin tone. "How could you let the smugglers into the tombs? Where were you? Gambling off your Drachma while the relics are flying out to the markets of smugglers?" The High Priestess grumbled and scolded the overseer harshly but the Overseer did not phase in the face of harsh words.

"Isidorah, I mean no disrespect, I merely did not know the smugglers were daring enough to launch a bold plundering like the one last night." Said the Overseer causing Isidorah to huff out in anger and turned around to see the two. "A pleasant surprise to find you two here. I take it that Anubis is hunting smugglers and you two are helping him?" Isidorah asked them nonchalantly.

"The Shadows ARE disturbed spirits. It's only natural that we try to stem the tide from the source," Taiyou said evenly.

"Excellent. Then I'll leave it to you to find the source of the problem. Without poking your noses in the wrong directions." Said Isidorah with a huff before storming out of the tent going out somewhere. "Don't worry about that woman, she's spiteful all the time. Perhaps a bit more than usual lately with all the curse of the pharaohs going on." Said the overseer as she cleaned her desks of Drachma coins and put them into bags and the bags into a chest for safe keeping. "I am Tahemet, tomb overseer of the Theban Necropolis. Lord Anubis is nearby isn't he? He doesn't leave Memphis and Giza without special reasons I gathered." She assessed the two with a bit of chin stroking.

"No, Anubis is not with us at the moment," Kassandra lied. "He has other matters to attend to and thus he sent us in his stead."

"If you could help us it'd be greatly appreciated," Taiyou added.

"That's odd, whenever anything like this happens it's Anubis doing the job. He'd never sent strangers. Anyway, I have been looking for reasons why the incidents of late has been happening. I know one thing, this is no curse of the pharaohs." Said Tahemet with a bold and confident claim to them both. "How do you know?" Kassandra asked curiously.

Tahemet then pulled out to them what appeared to be a ledger of various artifacts smuggling and prices that she purchased on the black market. These were apparently statues, busts, idols, amulets, gold and wealth of various sorts. Nothing to be considered a threat or possible cursed items. "If a single one of these were the cause of the curse then Thebes would have been under its effect a long time ago. Not just from the past two days." Said Tahemet as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Then...do you have any idea what could be causing the Shadows? Perhaps something out of the ordinary?" Taiyou frowned...before a thought hit them. "Or maybe...were there any changes to the tombs themselves? If maybe an artifact isn't the source, did someone do something to the tombs themselves beyond normal looting?"

"Hm...that is an interesting thought," Kassandra mused.

"I'm not sure. Tomb raiding and smuggling like this happen all the time and none seem to have conjured the Shadows like the past two days. If it were something done to the tombs, then I tell you it's not enough to go on about. Flimsy evidence." She eagerly nailed her point home. "But If I were you I would start looking at the tombs for the nobles, if plundering tombs of pharaohs did not bring the Shadows up before, then maybe one special tomb for a noble like say… Isidorah would kick it in." Tahemet winked at them before sending them off to the nearby Necropolis for the nobles.

Like the Valley of the Kings, the Necropolis for the Nobles appear to be rather well hidden by virtue of being built into the mountains. But the entrances and scales were much more modest compared to the Pharaohs. "This must be the place, I can't read Egyptian hieroglyphs. No commoners can, except for scribes, priests and the gods." Kassandra mused before hearing mewing sounds from behind her.

She turned around and noticed Anubis coming up to them being followed by a pack of kittens purring and playing curiously with his tail, some of them rub themselves against his legs and ankles to get his attention on them instead. "A god you need? He has arrived." Said Anubis with a sigh as the kittens continue to swarm around him.

"Cats all over...I'm guessing...Bastet?" Taiyou hazarded a guess. He couldn't think of another reason for a large number of cats.

"Funny enough she isn't here. Must be the perfume she sent to me the other day." Anubis remarked as the kittens and their parents swarm around him and occasionally lying down lazily next to him. Anubis then looked up the hieroglyphs of the tomb and read it. "Here lies God's Wife of Amun, High Priestess Nitokris. Mother of Isidorah." Anubis read and huffed out and crossed his hands. "Well looks like we found where to start looking. If her timing was anything to go by, I would say she was expecting me." Anubis mused.

"So this is basically Isidorah's family grave?" Taiyou blinked.

Anubis nodded and began to wander into the tomb with Taiyou and Kassandra, the cats and kittens of course followed them into the tombs and began to fan out, looking for places to nest in and find odd confined holes on the walls to jump into and nap lazily. "At least they'll guard the tomb." Said Anubis with a sarcastic voice.

As they entered the tomb's inner sanctum, the burial chamber there had a single gold sarcophagus with a gold ornate burial mask, the amulet protecting the heart was missing and possibly stolen by Sutekh the smuggler. The wall painting showed them what appeared to be a ritual by Nitokris, they depicted her holding high a golden spherical object that glew radiant sun light across the land with the commoners being on their knees holding their hands up before her. Possibly out of fear and respect, but for some reasons Taiyou and Kassandra felt off by this depiction.

"In life and death, she the God's Wife of Amun, serves the sun and banish chaos with order. Ever loving of her ancestor's final rest, Nitokris conduct the rite of Ma'at to deter lowly thieves." Anubis read the hieroglyphic carefully, translating them into Greek for Taiyou and Kassandra but as he examined the hieroglyphs and the depictions on the wall to have a rather ominous undertone. The wording seems apologetic and quite probably meant to give off the impression that someone was trying to whitewash something.

"That sphere...something doesn't seem right about it," Taiyou frowned. "I don't know why, I just feel that way."

"Yes… Would Nitokris have buried it with her?" Kassandra asked Anubis before they all turned their eyes to the sarcophagus, this prompted Anubis to help her pry the lid open. It was as heavy as stone with the three of them heaved to simultaneously to push it off, releasing the air within and exposed the mummy to the outside world. What they found however was a lone mummy with both hands apparently clasped together to hold something. And yet the item appeared missing. As if taken, leaving the hands in an empty spherical pedestal. "Nek…" Anubis snarled furiously.

"What is that sphere?" Taiyou asked. Clearly it was important.

"I think I know what it is. The Aten… an artifact to command all beings under the heaven. Records of it is almost non-existent. Let's go!" Anubis hustled out of the tomb and began to lead them down to the felucca with the sun coming down on the horizon, they hastily rowed back to the Governor's palace to find Horus but once they arrived, they heard the sound of Horus and Montu grunting and huffing in the garden. "Tell me he's not wasting time…" Anubis mumbled before running towards the garden finding Montu and Horus were busy wrestling each other.

Both avian deities were stripped down to their loin cloths while flexing their muscles and feather under the sun as they struggle with one another. Pushing and shoving trying to overcome the other with wits and strategies as much as strength. Their thighs slabbing against one another with each push while Horus's shoulders were being held by Montu's stronger arms. Soon enough Montu was able to push Horus on his back and bear down on him, pinning his body against the ground.

"...wat?" Taiyou and Kassandra asked dryly.

Their voices caught the ears of the two sweaty and muscular male avian deities as they looked over to see them and Montu blushed bright red while Horus huffed out shaking his head with a Tsk-tsk sound escaping his beaks. "Told you this was a bad idea." Said Horus before Montu standing up and took a towel to wipe his sweat. "Sorry about that Anubis, I was wrestling with Horus when you were coming back." Said Montu in a sheepish tone.

"By wrestling you mean, attempt to dominate the crown prince just because he invites foreigners to populate our cities." Said Anubis with a sarcastic grumble before Horus walking by Montu and spanking his rear. "Take it up to the pharaoh old man, you always want to show off with any avians you see. You're just too closeted to admit. Smug proud old man." Horus let out a chicken like laugh with his clucking.

"Well...we found a lead, so we should get going," Taiyou said awkwardly.

Horus nodded to Taiyou and proceed to immediately offer him a hug in congratulatory manner and nuzzle his beak against Taiyou's head to show affection. "I knew it you wouldn't let anyone down. Come on then, let's follow up our lead. By the way, what's the lead?" Horus paused momentarily to consolidate on what they've found as he was out of the loop during the whole process.

"Well someone stole the Aten, a spherical artifact from Nitokris tomb probably smuggled to a blackmarket or something else." Anubis disclosed to Horus causing him to rub his forehead in thought. "Heh… I have absolutely no idea what does it do. Let alone know it exists." Horus blurted out in confusion. "Maybe I spent too much time with my wife, and hunky Rezat and the avian tribe resettling in Letopolis." He sighed out both disappointingly and dumbfoundedly, prompting Anubis to pat his shoulder. "It's alright, you're the crown prince. You ARE doing what is expected of a pharaoh to be."

Montu at that moment was putting on his trouser and tying it up with a belt buckle and putting on his clothes for a more proper attire for the evening. "If I may interrupt but I seem to recall that the smuggler Sutekh was captured and imprisoned. Got sloppy while plundering another tomb no less. He might still be there, who knows, perhaps he helped smuggled out the relic?" Montu hypothesized and stroked his chin.

"That could be a useful clue. Where is he being held?" Kassandra asked.

Montu then led them out to the riverside balcony of the palace and pointed them towards a high walled fortress built on an island in the middle of the lake. The place appeared to have noticeably well fortified watchtowers, some were sporting ballista to guard against intruders.

"I can see why you'd want to put someone like him in here. I can't see a normal mortal being able to escape from here without help," Taiyou commented.

"So we just walk in and question him? Usual deity business and no violence right?" Horus asked only to have Anubis held up his index finger at his beak causing Horus to sqeaked abruptly feeling how forceful his brother could be at times. "No. If this boy Sutekh is so important and he smuggled out the Aten, questioning him is tantamount to his death in broad daylight." Said Anubis to which Horus and Montu rose an eyebrow at. "You mean… cover ups?" Montu asked and saw Anubis nodding. "We'll break in tonight. So no one will prepare a convenient death for him. Just to be sure." Said Anubis in a bold declaration that even Montu was at a loss for words.


	5. Chapter 5: Son of Amun

Chapter 5: The son of Amun

It was night now in Thebes with their plan being in motion. Under the cover of darkness, Kassandra and Taiyou used a felucca to slowly approach the fortress of Yebu. Anubis was seen on the far side approaching the front gate of Yebu on a Felucca that he rode by himself. Horus was in the sky circling above to provide overwatch and warning for what might go wrong.

As Anubis approached the fortress, the guards there were alarmed and frightened by his sudden arrival and scrambled to open the gate with the Strategos of Yebu running hastily to muster his troops for inspection. When they saw Anubis passing through the gates the Strategos of Yebu, half dressed in linen thorax armor with his cape barely sorted out saw the commanding gaze of Anubis.

The Jackal entered the courtyard looking sideways spotting the various crates and weapon racks in open air as well tents for troops. "You're all dead!" He shouted to them all of a sudden. "You there!" He pointed to one of the Egyptian Phalangite there, "What are you going to do with your Strategos dead?" He asked demandingly to which the man stuttered unable to answer. "You're dead too." Anubis dismissed him with a huff before looking to the man next to him. "What will you do?" He asked again.

"Take command! Rally the men! Man the ramparts!" He shouted out hastily trying to put on a front of bravado and confidence. "Much better, I can see you not meeting too soon!" Anubis replied in a harsh shout as he continued his inspection.

Meanwhile in the lower parts of the fortress, Kassandra and Taiyou had managed to slip unseen into the fortress water drainage ditch and began to work their way up to the floor above. They slowly climb up a ladder to a food supply shed of the fortress with Kassandra climbing up first. She slowly observed the place finding it relatively free of guards and helped Taiyou climb up.

"Anubis...really isn't pulling any punches is he?" Taiyou asked dryly.

"Perhaps," Kassandra shrugged. "But it does work in giving us the distraction. Now we need to make sure we don't waste it."

"Right, let's go," Taiyou nodded as they entered and made their way through the fortress, having memorized a map ahead of time.

To help with their navigation, Kassandra brought with her a drawn map of Yebu to help them find references of the area. They found themselves inside the the food shed, adjacent to the dungeon and barracks of the troops stationed there.

As they were about to continue forward, they had a close call when Anubis was seen inspecting the walls of the fortress with him pointing out the various deficiencies in the defensive work. "He has a way with words." Kassandra mused before she snuck out of the foodshed with Taiyou into the dungeon. Inside there was a lone guard walking back and forth to guard several cages of prisoners. A rather cushy job, Kassandra hide in the dark and waited for the soldier to come around and as he was making his round, she hit him with a wooden stupa in the dungeon.

The force of her hit was hard enough to knock out the guard and she dragged him into a corner where he was tied up and gagged to prevent him from calling for help.

"How long do you think he'll be out?" Taiyou asked.

"Hopefully long enough that we can do what we came to do and get out," Kassandra shrugged.

They then went about looking at the cells trying to spot Sutekh from the prisoners, which they found quite easily when the red haired man was found lounging on his wooden bed. "What do you want from me neb? Want to join me in this inn? I tell you it's the cheapest accommodation in Thebes. Free of charge… from life." He boasted cheekily to them with Issun huffing out. "Pffft! Put a sock in it! We ain't joining you not even with gold in payment." Said Issun.

"What we ARE here for though, is to ask you a few questions, and we're not taking no for an answer," Taiyou said with a frown.

"The only question is if you're going to make this easy, or difficult," Kassandra said, cracking her knuckles at the last one.

Sutekh made an unamused scoff and rolled his eyes lying back down lazily. "Oh what do you think I am here for? Smuggling. Punishable by death or something like that." Said the young adult as he rubbed his face and temple in frustration. "You really don't care much about your life?" Issun asked the man confusedly. "Why should I? I barely make ends meet. Do you know how hard it is to bribe the officials and cover up a heist? It resets my effort." Sutekh replied smugly and scratched his head bouncing some lice off of his head.

"In that case we'll be direct. What did you steal from the tomb of Nitocris and for whom?" Taiyou asked. "It's got something to do with what's going on lately, and we want to put a stop to it."

"I was paid in gold if to smuggle a very specific artifact of gold out. Some spherical relic that glows like the sun. An artifact that once gleem into you can see so many things that your head will explode!" He spoke in a whimsically over excited voice before pausing to compose himself.

"That is the Aten or so Akhenaten the Heretic called it. Some artifact of the really ancient gods that us mortals have no understanding of. Some woman in cloak took it from me after delivery and handed me a bag of gold. The next day saw me arrested and dragged here." He finished and huffed out and lied back down on the bed. "What good is my life anyway? A red headed descendant of great pharaohs past, wandering the streets of his own capital looking for scraps to eat." Said Sutekh with an apple picked from the plate next to him to eat.

"In other words, you were set up," Kassandra said. "No doubt to bury this very bit of information with your death."

"Damn it! Doggo man was right on the money! We need to get you out of here! Wait what do you mean by descendant of pharaohs?" Issun asked profusely to Sutekh. The red haired youth stood up and seem to have a laid back attitude towards Taiyou and Issun. "Do you know how many pharaohs in Egypt with red hair?" Sutekh asked. "One." Kassandra replied tersely. "And you're related to him?" She followed up and he nodded. "Mhm. He had so many children that one of them would sooner than later carry on his blood. That's what my mother told me, my red hair is proof of that. But nowadays, who has need for me when they have the Greeks?" Sutekh asked.

"Then it seems we have nothing else to say," Kassandra sighed, before moving away from the bars. However, that was when she noticed Taiyou wasn't moving. "We must hurry," she reminded.

Taiyou looked at Sutekh intently. "Is that it? You're planning on just giving up?" he asked. "Maybe you haven't found much worth in your life up till now, but are you really planning on just dying? It's not too late, you can still get away and start over."

"There's nothing else I can do neb. Just pack my bags and walk to the Duat." Sutekh remarked in a surrendering tone.

"Are you really going to just let it end just like that?" Taiyou questioned. "Do you REALLY want to die?"

Unfortunately for them, they heard a shout from outside of the dungeon possibly from one of the guards, "Hey what's going on in there?" clearly when Taiyou raised his voice he attracted the attention of one of the guards outside who was coming in to check for suspicious activities. "Uh oh! We gotta bail now! If they catch us here we're all in hot water Taiyou! Come on already, let's leave the smuggler where he's at." Issun insisted as he bounced and sweat nervously.

Taiyou looked to where the sound was coming from...and turned to Sutekh. "I'm waiting. Do you really want to die, or do you want to live?" he asked again.

Sutekh finally had enough. "Do you think I WANT to die? Of course I want to live! But what does asking me thi-!" he didn't get to finish as Taiyou...promptly pulled and broke the hinges of the door holding him, to which he moved it aside, grabbed Sutekh...and promptly started pulling him along as they ran.

"This is a terrible idea and you know it," Kassandra said bluntly as they ran.

"It probably is, but I don't actually regret it...and yes I'm well aware how hot of water I'm going to be in if/when Anubis finds out," Taiyou said.

"What's going on in there?" The guard asked again rushing inside to check if there was anything suspicious once he heard the sound of broken hinges and metal clanking. He ran in and found the cell door swung open and Sutekh was missing and raised the alarm. "The prisoner has escaped! The prisoner has escaped! Patrols on high alert immediately, he may be armed!"

The alert went out to the entire fortress of Yebu with the guards rushing to their positions trying to comb the area for possible escape routes with various watchouts on high towers to spot them from afar. "Malaka… that boy." Anubis grumbled as he let the guards went about doing their things with nothing else for him to pull as distraction.

But meanwhile Horus was flying in the sky looking down at activities at the fortress and knew that things were going to be hot. He glides downward and landed in front of Anubis, "Brother, what happened? The entire garrison is going bananas!" Horus exclaimed and flabbergasted prompting Anubis to grab him by his neck and pulled him close.

"That boy did something he shouldn't have done. Locate him and vacate him from the premises." He instructed Horus with a grumble. The crown prince knew that his brother was not one to be trifled with and nodded obediently, "I'll get it done brother, you get back too." Horus would fly into the air and prowled the area for signs of Taiyou and Kassandra.

One thing he noticed, was several guards running along the river, chasing after what appeared to be the boat Taiyou and Kassandra had been given going down the stream, and while it didn't seem like anyone was rowing it, he could see something in it, while the current did the rest of the job.

However, when he focused his vision, he realized those lumps...couldn't possibly be people. More and more guards were present, trying to find the escaped prisoner, but in the darkness, and with the chaos...none of them noticed a trio of slow moving reeds, just BARELY sticking out of the water, going slowly towards another path of the river, different from where the boat was going.

Horus gasped seeing that Taiyou and Kassandra had somehow fooled the guards, but part of him felt relief as it bought him time to find them. He glided down closer to the water surface of the Nile looking for signs of Taiyou and Kassandra. One of his eyes gave him vision clarity like the sun shining its light on mortals. The other was dark as the night sky but gave him the vision of ghostly apparitions, life that were under his protection. He panned around trying to spot Taiyou and Kassandra not knowing where could they have gone.

He was searching for a while, a good several minutes, not finding anything...until he noticed something odd near the shore, namely some reeds...which seemed to be growing abnormally fast.

"Hmmm. I wonder…" Horus mumbled before morphing into a peregrine falcon and flew over the reeds, he landed gently on the bank nearby and observed them closely and noticed how they began to bob and... moved! He was astonished and had a double take but kept quiet enough to observe what was happening.

"Clever trick." He mused with a wing stroking his chin when he noticed the reeds were moving, they were hollowed out reeds acting as a sort of air supply straw. The three moved away from the island of Yebu and headed towards the riverbank. "Hmmm well played Taiyou. Let's see how far you'll go." Horus mused and flew along and landed on one of the straws making sure that his talon wouldn't completely cover the hollow out hole on the top and let them swim all the way.

Once they arrived on the riverbank of the Nile, the trio stood up with Sutekh rubbing his hair and threw his red hair back. "I cannot believe that the silly trick worked." Sutekh exclaimed and looked back at the river, noticing that there were some crocodiles prowling the water but oddly enough didn't come at them despite being in the water the whole way. "Something's not right, they didn't feast on us and send us to the Duat." Sutekh mused suspiciously.

"Or something's right. Mortal." Horus voice exclaimed as he morphed back to his anthro deity form from the bushes and stood up. He looked down at Taiyou with Sutekh kneeling and groveling at Horus's legs asking and begging for mercy. "Now just what were you thinking Taiyou? You were supposed to question him, not move him." Said Horus with a judgemental tone as he looked down at them, prompting Kassandra to nudge Taiyou with an elbow. "I told you so." Said Kassandra.

Taiyou sighed, but looked Horus in the eye and answered, "Because I felt it would be a waste for him to die there and then. He himself realizes he's been squandering his life, and I saw that as a chance for him to make something better of it, something that he will not be able to do if he were to be executed," he said firmly. "Besides, the fact remains he was in a way, caught in the trap set up by the real culprit."

"Well I hope that you're happy with possibly implicating my brother. He might lose his job." Said Horus with a stern tone as he picked up Sutekh by his back. "As for you, stop groveling already. I've had more than enough of that." Horus stated before letting him falling splat on the water of the riverbank. "Well at least you don't whack me on the head immediately." Said Sutekh.

"They didn't see us, nor did they see how we got in or out, only that we took the river, and as far as they know, we should be drifting down the river somewhere, while somehow having avoided detection completely when they notice the boat is a fake. I've also made sure to cover our tracks...literally...when we were coming to the water," Taiyou said.

"Yes but once they see Sutekh on the streets they'll pick him up and he'll be back where you busted him out of. Possibly a box the next time." Said Horus but as he was arguing with them, a looming figure was rising out of the bushes nearby. Another Shadow of the Pharaoh, this one being noticeably younger and shorter. This Shadow had a golden burial mask, one that was much more reflective and brand new than the other two Shadows and this one seemed to have a long golden lance in hand.

It slammed the hilt of the lance on the ground and from the gathering storm clouds above, a thunderbolt cracked through the sky and slammed into the tip of the spear surging through the weapon's length as the Shadow prepare to strike at them. "Behind me!" Horus ordered them as he assume position to shield them.

"We can fight too," Taiyou said, pulling out his Reflector. "I'll think of something regarding Sutekh later, but for now we'll need to fight this. If I'm right, this one might have another Brush," he said.

"Which one is it?" Kassandra asked.

"Most likely Thunderstorm," Taiyou said.

"Whatever technique it has… I'm not deterred." Horus declared boldly as the battle kicked off with the Shadow lunged forward at Horus while the crown prince held him back using his halberd to parry and threw a kick into the face of the Shadow, throwing it back before he returned with a charge forward and swiping across the burial mask of the Shadow, leaving a clear slash pattern. "Winds, thrash him!" He summoned his wind power and quickly tossed the Shadow into the air briefly before his wings thrashed it with a gust of wind tearing off some black fabric on its body.

The shadow retaliated with a swing of its spear...which radiated electricity before a blast of it lanced out of the spear, and hit Horus dead on, shocking him.

"Yike! That hurts!" Horus screeched out in an avian manner as he was bounced back but was still in some control of his movements to prevent himself from falling into the Nile. He double back and landed on the dirt road, sparing the fish and wildlife of the Nile from danger.

"Mummify!" Anubis voice hissed through the air as he emerged from the ground and his mummification bandages wrapped around the Shadow. He then slammed the hilt of his scepter to summon Grasping Hands and followed it up with Plague of Locust blasting ethereal locust hordes from his mouth.

The Shadow once broken free staggered back and Taiyou saw what was under the wrapping of the black drapes and cloaks, grey and decaying feet with veins of gold but beside that there was a second set of arms holding a cane in to support the Shadow walking about.

"He can't walk properly!" Taiyou said. "Take out the cane and his legs, and he'll be helpless!" With that, he threw his Reflector at the shadow, catching one of the legs when it moved to avoid getting hit in the cane.

The Shadow staggered and fell aside before trying to get back up, this time the Shadow slammed the hilt of its lance on the ground sending out a massive shockwave of electric pulses at Taiyou, Horus and Anubis at the same time. It then quickly took a few quick swipes at Anubis's chest, forcing the Jackal deity to double back avoiding the spear's tip. "Brother, behind me!" Horus shouted out as he flew at Anubis, grabbing his brother by the shoulder and gave Anubis a boost in his health and divine protection, giving Anubis a chance to fight back.

"Thanks Horus." The Jackal then fired his Mummification at the Shadow, ensnaring it in his wrappings. He then levitated from the ground with his eyes glowing cyan before followed by his deadly Death Gaze at the Shadow, aiming at its very walking cane as his blast tore through the fabric of its black coak and drapes.

"Don't let up!" Taiyou said, before drawing an infinity mark, causing a Fireburst to hit the Shadow, burning it severely, followed by a set of Cherry Bombs, which exploded all around it, damaging it even more.

The Shadow soon gasped and screamed out in an otherworldly shriek and wallow as it began to disintegrate from existence with its physical form glow and blew up into particles of light with orbs flying up from its remains and merging into Taiyou's chest giving him back his Thunderstorm brush. "Well that was quite an exercise." Horus chirped out eagerly patting Anubis's back from the successful skirmish.

"So what now brother? Finish this tonight?" He asked, to which Anubis nodded. "We are. Take Sutekh to safety, guard him well. I have a score to settle." Anubis ordered Horus grimly and the falcon deity sighed out walking over to Sutekh and Kassandra. "Come on you two, we shall fly together." Horus sent up a shadow figure of him into the sky scouting out a safe location as he flew off.

"Boy, with me to the temple. It's time to end this." Said Anubis as he held his scepter in hand, the runes and hieroglyphs and Egyptian hieratic writings glowed along its length while the energy ball glew purple with Anubis seething with necromantic rage.

"We're finishing this with Isidorah, aren't we?" Taiyou sighed. It really was painfully obvious who the mastermind was. "Do we at least have a plan? I doubt this is going to be too easy."

"Boy." Anubis sternly put his foot down. "Sometimes, rage is all you need. So here's the plan, see her, kill her." Anubis stated coldly before walking towards the temple of Isidorah where a light grew out of the halls and corridors. One as bright as the sun but miniaturized. Anubis knew from the sight of it that it was the Aten artifact that she was using. Possibly to summon yet another pharaoh from the graves as her bodyguard, further infuriating Anubis.

For Taiyou, it was becoming painfully obvious that Anubis would not tolerate anyone misusing Necromancy or even summoning and perversing the deceased for their will. And it further fueled his rage when it is done for a selfish cause. As they cut their way through the city, the sleeping populace were slowly stirred from their slumber. Some residents came out on the streets rubbing their sleepy eyes just to have a look at what had transpired with curiosity.

Only to have themselves be further confused by the sight of Anubis and Taiyou racing across the city towards the Temple of Karnak at the Northern end of the city. As they came closer, the glowing radiant light of the Aten become ever brighter with the temple of Karnak seems to be lit up by its brilliant rays.

But once they have arrived, the two heard the sound of powerful footsteps stomping through the hallways of the great temple. Hearing this Issun was quick to buckle his teeth under the stress and fear. "Uh… uh… that doesn't sound right. In fact, I hope it's not Crimson Helm or anything from home finding their way here." Issun clattered his teeth together and shook on top of Taiyou's head.

"Crimson Helm is gone, but whether or not its something like it...I can't say for sure," Taiyou frowned. "Best we be on our guards."

Anubis growled and snarled, his nose picked up a foul scent in the air as the deity slowly inched forward, sword drawn in hand and scepter mounted on his back. He was especially cautious at the thudding footsteps of something hulking coming their way. As they came into the main ritual room where Isidora was seen with the Aten in her hands glowing at her chanting of a spell in native Egyptian tongue.

"Hey you wench! Game is up, no more tricks, no more lies or illusions! We're taking you in whether you like it or not." Issun proudly declared while bouncing on Taiyou's head.

"Must you be such a pest? Perhaps I was wrong to underestimate you, lord Anubis. Your wit and cunning are sharp as knives of steel." Isidora retorted prompting Anubis to scoff at her. "Enough! You've lost that respect the moment you abused the Aten. Hand it over or I'll condemn you to Ammit's mouth." Said Anubis in a threatening tone with his growling grew much more intense than before.

"If that is what you want, then perhaps you should take it up to the Heretic." Isidora taunted him and stepped back into the shadow, letting the light of the Aten shine like a beacon in the dark and out came a tall, somewhat slender Shadow of the Pharaoh. Akhenaten the Heretic. He was like a tree bark towering but twisted and bent. In his hands he held a massive blade looking like a double handed cleavage. "I should have known… the Heretic himself. First one to discover and hold the Aten…" Anubis remarked with a sigh.

"What do you honestly hope to achieve with all this? You're not getting anything other than causing problems for everyone!" Taiyou growled.

"Who cares about that? Just focus on the Heretic with the blade!" Anubis chimed in and quickly rolled on the ground, dodging the massive blade from slicing him, the blade struck at some of the pillars and torn off chunks of stones on the floor. "Mummify!" Anubis fired his stun attack at the Shadow, only to find that his attack barely able to detain the target as Akhenaten ghost shrieked and screeched inhumanly while struggling to remove the bandages. His waddling and struggling suggested that he won't be held for long.

Anubis quickly followed up his Stun attack with Death Gaze blasting the Heretic with a pair of intense heat laser beams from his eyes while Akhenaten stumbled back away from the Jackal deity. Instead he held his blade aloft high in the sky with the blade itself glowed bright as the star, the Heretic commenced what could best be described as a whirlwind sword move, slashing off chunks of rocks and decors from the temple's pillars and columns while Taiyou and Anubis kept away.

"That kind of cutting power...that's the Power Slash brush!" Taiyou said in alarm, before glaring at Isidora. "Again, all these shades have pieces of my power in them!" he growled. His powers were NOT supposed to be used this way.

"There has to be someway we can stop him. If Anubis can't do that with his mummy bandages then what can?" Issun asked profusely before Taiyou suddenly remembered something, Akhenaten held his blade aloft and Taiyou had reclaimed Thunderbolt Brush Technique. He now had the technique to both stun and deal serious damage to Akhenaten. "I have an idea." Said Taiyou as he then ran up to Akhenaten to catch the attention of this Heretic.

The Shadow held his blade high once again this time to slash Taiyou into half like a watermelon, but that was when Taiyou utilized his Thunderstrike brush technique on the cloudy thundering sky above. He channeled a blast of lightning out of the sky, guiding it down to zap the Heretic's blade, electrocuting him in the process.

The shadow spasmed when it was hit, causing it to fall to a knee, electricity dancing from its stunned form. "Hit it hard now!" Taiyou ordered, surging forward and casting Cherry Bomb mixed with Inferno, causing them to explode greatly, followed by several strikes with his sword when the flames dispersed, revealing a badly damaged shadow which had a hard time standing up to the fast assault.

Anubis did not hesitate as he charged in with his sword now radiating smoke and mist of the Underworld as he charged and thrust his blade up Akhenaten's chest where his heart would be. After being struck with the powerful blade, Akhenaten stumble back before trying to pull another swing at them, prompting Anubis to stagger back. The Jackal deity pulled out his bow Hunger of the Underworld and fired his arrows at the Heretics, landing some well aimed shots on the golden burial mask of the Shadow.

The Shadow reared back in pain from the arrow, to which Taiyou jumped forward and stabbed it in the chest where its heart should be, and savagely ripped it out of with a slash.

This had a decisive effect on the Shadow of Akhenaten, as the Shadow burst into particles of sunlight Isidora now staggered out of the shadow, weak and hyperventilating. Her hands were weak with her feet failing her, causing her to fall down and dropped the Aten rolling on the floor towards Anubis's feet.

"No… No… Amun, great god Amun. Why do you forsaken me? Am I not the righteous? For defending...our ancestors graves…" She gasped and croaked as she crawled on the ground with her abdomen seemingly penetrated by a blade. But it was odd for both Anubis and Taiyou as they did not hit her directly. But the wound on her body, under the slightly torn fabric of cloth correspond to that of Anubis's blade.

"A tomb well defended in wit. Not by intimidation and blood of innocents. May the Hidden One walk you to the Afterlife Isidora, God's wife of Amun. The Lord of the Duat awaits." Anubis said his parting words to the dying Isidora as he finally had her eyes went to the back of her head and he closed them gently.

Resting her hands on her chest across one another, he let her had one last moment of dignity in death while picking up the Aten inspecting its shape. "What are you? Where did you come from? Who made you? I have so much to ask and yet none can answer me. Till wisdom is shown I am but a candle in the darkness." Anubis muttered gently while gazing into the Aten attentively to the point Issun felt he was developing some form of odd fascination.

"That's something I'd like to know as well," Taiyou frowned. "But for now…" he held out his hand, and from where Isidorah lay, an orb of light appeared, and was soon absorbed into his body, restoring the Power Slash to him. "I don't know why Kek has been spreading my Techniques like this…" he frowned.

"Whatever his motive is… I doubt it's for fun." Said Anubis with a sigh as he held the Aten sphere in hand and put it away inside a satchel bag slung on his belt. "Let's go. Nothing left for us here." He turned around and led Taiyou out of the Temple of Karnak leaving the High Priestess corpse in peace for the people and the priests of the temple to find in the morning.

[hr]

It was dawn by the time they'd returned. "I hope everything is going well," Taiyou sighed. It would be nice if things went their way for now. "And I hope Sutekh didn't choose to do anything stupid."

"You saved him. Not me." Anubis tersely remarked as they entered the governor's villa of the city where Horus was and Kassandra were seen waiting for them. Sutekh was nowhere to be seen however while Montu was away handling the situation inside the temple of Karnak with Horus coming out to greet them first, followed by Kassandra. "Brother! You're back! Safe and sound as well I might add, bad news though." Horus sighed out nervously with a shrug after he hugged Anubis tenderly.

"Let me guess… Sutekh?" He asked Horus seemingly aware of what Horus want to imply with the missing prisoner. "Well… yes. He's gone, not here anymore but not in Yebu either. My best bet he's off to somewhere else. Hopefully neither Nubia or Libya if that kid knows what's best for him." Said Horus with a shrug with Kassandra nudging Taiyou gently and whispered to his ears. "I sent him packing. He can go anywhere but the Afterlife for now." Said Kassandra.

"Thank you," Taiyou whispered with a small smile. Kassandra smiled back at that. "So… I take it that you took care of her?" Horus asked morbidly to which Anubis nodded slowly and he sighed out depressed by the confirmation. "Well I guess I can't stop you from doing so." He shrugged and turned around leading them inside the Villa where they could have breakfast to fill their stomachs. "We're going to have some sleepless nights if this keeps up. At least now that we're done in Thebes, I can take you to see my wife." Horus exclaimed cheerfully.

"And to the capital as ordered." Anubis added as he sat down on his table with a massive stone size breadloaf brought in by the servants with honey, livers, chicken meat and vegetables for them to make sandwiches of varying sizes of the bread loaf slices.


	6. Chapter 6: Drama loads

Chapter 6: Drama loads

Roughly a day has passed since their ordeal in the city of Thebes, Taiyou and Kassandra finally back on track to Alexandria cruising down the Nile on a barge hired out of Horus's pocket. It was a rather grand and loud barge made from the finest wooden planks of acacia trees with his eyes painted on the bowl of the vessel. The barge was even painted with various emerald green and turquoise colors of reeds and lily pads along the Nile while the deck was decorated with a small shrine to… Horus himself.

When they reached the oasis of Faiyum where the barge stopped by for a quick pick up of wares and goods, Anubis seem hesitant to disembark from the barge while Taiyou and Kassandra were apparently eager to hop off and enter the city of Krokodilopolis, the sacred city of crocodiles. The crowds of Egyptian and Greeks there were apparently going about putting loads of goods on the ship like statues, idols, amulets and other items of value.

Anubis sighed out with Anubis leaning against the dock's crane knew why, the jackal deity simply sat down grumpily on the barge's deck waiting impatiently for the workers to be done with their loading and unloading. "Still hating this place?" Horus asked curtly, to which Anubis nodded. "She died here… part of me died here." Said Anubis in a blank thousand miles stare at the direction of a wealthy villa estate. One that the locals named Philadelphia, but for Anubis it was nothing but trouble.

"I...read about Set before I came here. I'm...sorry for your loss…" Taiyou said. "If it's too much, we could try skipping this place," he suggested.

"Let them finish… no need to inconvenience them." Anubis remarked coldly with his gaze became steely and lifeless. It was as if he had suddenly died out of the blue leaving a lifeless shell behind. "He doesn't like coming back here, not even for a gladiator game." Horus chimed into Taiyou's ears. "Truly… Egypt holds family the highest." Kassandra remarked sarcastically.

But as they were waiting there, their peace and quiet was interrupted by a cloud of sand and dust and followed by a sinister deep, raspy voice of a deity from within the sand cloud. "I am the terror the prowls the desert! I am the embodiment of storms and rage! I am Set Sutekh!" The voice boasted loudly before the sandstorm dissipated revealing a strange looking deity.

Like a hybrid of a jackal, donkey, fennek with two pointy ears on his head, a long and curled up snout covered by a metal mask. Standing on two legs with a forked tail was Set Sutekh himself, he wore a traditional Egyptian trouser with a light desert shirt on his torso alongside a small shoulder cape.

Despite his infamous reputation, Taiyou bowed all the same. "It is an honor to meet you, Lord Set. We are merely passing through, and have no intention of inconveniencing you," he said. It was best they not stir up problems.

"Yes yes yes whatever, you want real estate? Go to Soknopaiou Nesos or Dionysias." Set stated dismissively, pushing Taiyou aside not even caring about the fact that he nearly shoved Taiyou into the Nile much to Kassandra's dismay prompting her to pick Taiyou up before he fell down wet. "Jerk." She snarked causing Set to look back at her with an angry shout. "THANK YOU!" He spat at her before huffing out and stomping his way towards Anubis who snarled and growled aggressively at him.

"Son… it's time you go home." Set stated in an oddly casual and calm voice prompting Anubis sucker punch Set on his left eye. "I'm not your son, and you're not my father. You said so yourself." Said Anubis in an aggressive voice before Set slowly got back up to his feet and slap Anubis across his face. "DO NOT ACT LIKE THAT TO YOUR FATHER! You and Horus already got the throne and all that fun stuff with the Greeks. All I want is to see you again." Set calmed down slowly but not Anubis who pushed him aside and walked away into Krokodilopolis hoping to not see the old man again.

"...we should follow him," Taiyou sighed, but not before looking at Set. "Was that all really necessary?"

"Absolutely. You pesky foreigners wouldn't know that. Now out of my way!" Set pushed Taiyou aside only this time it barely caused him to be thrown into the Nile as he began to run after Anubis much to Horus's chagrin and disappointment. "Let's face it we shouldn't have stopped here. Come on kids." Horus grumbled as he began to make a running start and flapped his wings before taking off and fly along.

Taiyou sighed as he got back up again. "Something tells me this is going to be a long stay…" he groaned.

And much to his annoyance, he saw that Set was… dragging Anubis home. Rather he was carrying Anubis over his shoulder like a trophy while Anubis was beating Set's back trying to break free, much to his father's annoyance. "Quiet Anubis! Don't you see that your father want you home? I want to give you back your childhood!" Set groaned out in annoyance while Anubis remained defiance to the end. "It died long ago! You killed it yourself!"

"I...am not even sure where to even begin…" Taiyou groaned. This...wasn't something he was used to handling. At all.

Set soon noticed Taiyou and Kassandra alongside Horus and made an annoyed groan shooting a glare at them in annoyance. "What do you want now? You foreigners all come here for real estate. So why don't you hit the road?" Set grumbled at Taiyou and Kassandra however Horus cleared his throat out to his uncle. "Actually, honorable uncle…" Horus grumbled at the title, "They're not here for real estates. This is the crown prince of the Sun Taiyou. He's from the land of the Rising Sun known as Nippon and Anubis is assigned to be his guardian by his mother. Now will you please unhand Anubis and let us be on our way to the capital?" Horus screeched out angrily at Set.

The typhoid deity blunk and stood silently for a moment before shot a flat "No." at them and turned towards the direction of Philadelphia and high tailed his way there with Anubis in tow. "Hey uh Chibi, this is kinda odd but are we supposed to be rescuing Anubis since he's clearly in distress but not screaming like a dude in distress." Issun asked awkwardly not quite able to comprehend the bizarre behaviors of Set.

"I feel like we're talking on eggshells right now…" Taiyou sighed. "I don't even know where to begin in this situation…" at that he turned to Kassandra. "Any ideas?"

"Simple. Follow, annoy, subdue." Said Kassandra in a terse manner, to which Horus nodded to them. "Yes that's the only way to be sure. I know where he's heading so hang on kids." Said Horus as he began to use his ultimate ability to lift them off to the sky head over to where Set was.

Philadelphia, Greek for "brotherly love,'' a villa estate built on an isle in the middle of Faiyum oasis was Set's home. A wealthy estate with crops of olive and dates, wheat and barley and grains. Plenty to be a proper nobleman. Protected by walls and a single path into the estate made the place rather easy to navigate and defend. Despite the benign outward appearance with slaves and hired hands working around the place, Set's home emitted a sinister feeling of foreboding terror just by looking at the exterior of red tile roofs and white marble stones.

There Set raced into the mansion and let Anubis down on his feet once they were inside the living room, "Finally! We're home and we can give you back your childhood!"

"That honestly sounded FAR more ominous than it had any right to be…" Taiyou gulped. It was becoming clearer and clearer that Set wasn't mentally sound…

"What? What are you doing here? Leave us! Don't you see that I'm trying to redeem myself in Anubis's eyes?" Set remarked angrily and hopping up and down impatiently when he saw Taiyou and co. much to Horus's embarrassment. "You killed it, nuff said. I'm leaving old man." Anubis protested and pushed Set aside trying to leave, only to have Set pulled him back and pushed him upstairs forcefully. "Don't worry son just wait in your room and I'll deal with these pests!" Said Set as he pushed Anubis into the same bedroom that he spent his childhood in, where the young pup's mother was murdered with the blood splattered though dried were still clearly seen on the floor.

Taiyou and Co. came and saw that...and they all looked at Set incredulously.

"What the heck kind of room is this?!" Taiyou gasped, losing his semblance of respect. "You can't seriously tell me you want him to stay in THIS place!"

"This is his room when he was a puppy! So of course he'll stay here!" Set protested and waved his battle axe around like a madman. Anubis however scoffed nonchalantly seeing the place being rather well preserved but empty and devoid of childhood memorabilia as he didn't have much toys or childhood to begin with. "I would if it weren't for the fact that the old bed is too small for me." Said Anubis. "Then I'll make the bed bigger, then you can sleep in it just like when you were a pup." This only prompted Anubis to push Set aside and walked down the stairs.

He didn't show it, but Horus caught sight of a single tear droplet falling down from his eyes as he left the estate's front door walking back outside. This was more than enough for Set to pause for a moment with his over the top antics and mentally unhinged behaviors. "That boy… wish I could turn back time." Set mumbled.

"It's probably not my place to say this, but I think you need a better method to try and reconnect," Taiyou sighed. "Starting with NOT putting him in the room his mother was killed."

"You're right." Set admitted before standing up on his feet dusting himself. "I'll slay a monster and win back the approval of the locals, then I'll buy Anubis a ticket to see the gladiator game! That will cheer him up!" Horus facepalmed hearing this as he rubbed his forehead in frustration at Set's apparent willful ignorance. "Good luck because he never wants to see your face again to begin with." Said the falcon crown prince with a shrug. "Oh shush nephew! I'm so creative with how I will reconnect with him that we'll be a family again in no time!" He boasted proudly with his finger pointing straight into the air.

Taiyou, Kassandra, and Issun all groaned at the insane logic. "As for all of you…" Set shot his glare at the group before suddenly pointing them into the spare bedrooms in his mansion. "You can stay in those. I'll be back with Anubis." Said Set to which Horus shook his head and held up his hand in protest.

"I object to that, uncle. You're never in your best mind to begin with and he's unreasonable towards you because you KILLED HIS MOTHER!" Horus shouted out loud to Set who in turn didn't seem to faze much if at all. Only to become much more jubilant and energized hearing the keyword. "Of course! Why didn't I realize it? Uh what was that you were saying again? Bah who cares, I'll get this done my way!" He ran down the stairs looking for Anubis somewhere in Faiyum much to Horus chagrin. "There he goes again." Said the crown prince.

Set ran out to the streets of Krokodilopolis and shot his glare left and right looking for where Anubis was. He lurched forward with his ears perked up listening closely for Anubis whereabouts and any distinctive sounds the jackal deity might make. Set was rather feral in his behavior when he began to sprint over to the temple of Sobek where he climbed up on a pillar and sniffing the air for Anubis scent. "Aha! He's here, I'm right on track indeed!" Set exclaimed and scaled down the pillar and went about looking for Anubis inside the temple with his head planted on the floor sniffing as he goes.

"...he's lost it," Issun deadpanned.

"Is this...really going to be okay?" Taiyou sighed at the sight.

"I have my doubts." Horus snarked as they followed Set towards the main hall of the temple where there were various priests and a high priest preparing an offering to a crocodile in a sanctuary ditch within the temple's compound. Set sniffed the place pushing the various priests aside before finding Anubis by a desk talking to a scribe with a piece of document on the table.

"You're telling me that Petsuchos suddenly snapped at the people and caretakers out of the blue?" Anubis asked curiously to which the scribe nodded in grimace. "Yes she never done that before. Now she suddenly snapping and lord Sobek is displeased. I fear he might ravage us out of rage."; "Aha! A mystery, a caper for me to solve! Finally Set Sutekh will be heralded as a hero again!" Set exclaimed excitedly and hopping up and down while Horus groaned in embarrassment.

"...I'm getting more and more worried…" Taiyou sighed. "Kassandra, do you maybe see anything about this?"

"I can't ask for visions, so no, I don't see anything. Though I don't need visions to know this will likely end badly…" Kassandra groaned into her hand.

"Right...we'd better help...or at least do damage control…" Taiyou sighed.

"Set can you just stop?" Horus begged in vain as Set ran towards the enclosure of Petsuchos and quickly jumped into the enclosure, demonstrating his acrobatic skills. Once he was inside however they soon realize that the situation might escalate to ugly. "I sure hope he'll be a corpse in there." Anubis sighed out sarcastically. "There was that one time when he tried to rape me. He failed." Horus added casually as if nothing had happened to him at all.

Set on the other hand was approaching Petsuchos the albino crocodile with shrub he picked up as a form of disguise and concealment. The ornate crocodile growled and snarled when she sensed Set was coming close to her. The chaos deity saw that the crocodile was bleeding red in the eyes and she was blinking intensely with tear droplets dropping down on the enclosure's mud floor. "Hmmm interesting. Must be poisoning." Set mused as he tiptoed towards the dates on the floor near the crocodile. These seem to emit a strange odor, foul and terrible. "Jackpot." Said Set as he dropped the shrub and picked up the dates.

But as he did, Petsuchos began to snap at his forked tail, causing him to boink off the ground reaction and quickly ran around the enclosure being chased by the lumbering Petsuchos and yet he didn't seem at all fazed by the crocodile's snapping jaw. "This is all the more exciting to me! I get to exercise in the most extreme way possible!" Set exclaimed eccentrically causing Horus to shrug. "Gotta give it to him, he's ballsy." Said Horus.

"Where's the line between that and stupid/crazy?" Taiyou sighed. "Come on, let's try to help him out a bit…got something to stop the crocodile?"

"No, we have nothing to stop the divine Petsuchos. He's stuck in there unfortunately." One of the priests stated and blink his eyes in astonishment at how well Set holds his own against Petsuchos just by running. Then Set planted the hilt of his axe on the ground and used it as an Olympic pole and catapulted him to safety using the momentum he built up over the course of his running. The priests and high priest there were highly impressed by the method Set used and clapped their hands out of awe.

"That was actually pretty clever," Kassandra blinked.

"I'm guessing you've found something if you're back out here, yes?" Taiyou checked.

"Indeed. Poisoned dates, someone tossed it in here to poison Petsuchos. But why?" Set mused and held up the dates in his hand. "The only thing I'm concerned with is your apparent ability to dodge death by a crocodile's jaw." Anubis grumbled. "Thank you! Now I will be able to solve this mystery and be a hero again in the eyes of the people in Faiyum and beyond!" Set exclaimed merrily much to Taiyou and Horus groaning. "Seriously what's wrong with you? You're so warped at this point I don't even understand a single thing you're trying to accomplish anymore." Said Issun.

"What he said," Kassandra sighed.

"Are you SURE it was poisoned dates? And if it was, why WOULD someone wants to poison Petsuchos? And more importantly who would do it?" Taiyou sighed.

"It's obviously a ploy to stage crisis in Faiyum. And I intend to get to the bottom of it. But first…" Set then grabbed Anubis by the waist and lifted his son over the shoulder again and carry him around like a trophy once more. "We're going home. You and I have a lot to catch up on." Said Set as he carried Anubis around only to have Anubis made a hand flip and break free of Set's grip. "No we are not, I'll handle this myself, you can stay at home and do nothing." Anubis protested prompting the chaos deity to spank Anubis's rump. "That's not how you talk to your father Anubis, apologize now!" Set stated demandingly.

"No!" Anubis snarled back at Set who then escalated the tension.

"Okay, let's not do anything crazy!" Taiyou shouted, suddenly getting between them. "I get you both have...a LOT of issues to deal with, but not here, not now."

"Fine, we'll solve this crisis. But not together and I'm not coming back to that estate of yours. It wasn't mine to begin with either." Anubis grumbled and left the temple with Horus prompting Taiyou and Kassandra to follow them. Set wasn't far behind. He kept out of sight and remain concealed and out of their sight while watching his son keeping himself far from sight.

Anubis however oddly enough was heading back to the docks where their ship was to avoid actually taking responsibilities and any actions in Faiyum. "Brother, what are you doing? You're supposed to be helping them not running away." Said Horus in protest as he hugged Anubis in preventing him from leaving. Anubis grunted and panted before throwing Horus's grip off. "Listen here, I will not participate in helping Set in anything. He can take care of himself or fail." Anubis growled at them. But once he arrived at the dock he found that something suspicious was going on, the boats and barges there were missing!

In fact their own barge was gone in a sudden. Most of the people who are present or at least supposed to be present at the docks were missing as well. This was concerning as he glanced around noticing that the place was empty with some vines left behind around the docks. "Horus… we have a problem." Anubis stated the obvious to which Horus dully remarked. "Indeed, the heat of Faiyum must be getting to us."

"Its not the heat," Taiyou spoke up, walking towards the water...and pulling out what appeared to be some kind of vine...which was leading towards something else. "Something took the boats, and likely the people here too."

"What is this? Attack of the killer vine? That will make for a summer comedy for sure." Horus scoffed at this, only to be nudged by Kassandra's elbow. "With what has been happening, assume all anomalies are hostile." The lycan reminded Horus who was reeling from the impact of her well aimed and placed elbow nudge. "Fair point. You picked one hell of a girlfriend there Taiyou." Said Horus prompting Issun to bounce up gleefully parroting what Horus has just approved. "See? See? Even he approves of my shipping, so obviously you two are in love!" Issun declared boastfully.

"We're not like that!" both of them shouted...a bit too quickly...in perfect synch. Both of them realized that and looked away. "Let's just...find out where these vines lead," Taiyou sighed.

Meanwhile, not far from the docks, Set was hiding behind some wooden crates and giggle gleefully at this information. "A monster? Here in Faiyum? Ooooh this is exactly what I want! A chance to be heroic once again! Set Sutekh will be venerated! Respected! Devoted once again by the natives, not those pesky ass kissing immigrants!" Set mused gleefully as he rolled around behind the crates before perking his head up slightly to spy on Anubis and co using a felucca to row across river to search for the peasants. "Looks like I'll have to be quick if I want that glory." Set huffed out and made a running head start towards the nearby Felucca and rowed his way towards the other side of the Nile River.

The group arrived at a settlement named Euhemeria, a small Egyptian town on the banks of the Oasis where the population there were still going about with their daily routines, though they were unaware of what was happening on the other side of the Oasis.

"Has anyone here seen anything suspicious?" Anubis asked one of the townsfolk there, the woman he asked shook her head in confusion. "No nothing has been happening. I just can't find my daughter Cleo anywhere. She was supposed to be around the market playing with other children. But they're missing too." Said the woman in distraught and urgent concern.

"So it seems whatever these vines are...their owner is taking everything and everyone," Kassandra frowned.

"Don't worry ma'am, we'll find your daughter and the other children." Horus declared in a determined tone before patting her on the shoulder and lift off into the air flying patrols around the lush green areas around the town. Set in turn arrived later but on a different river bank where he hopped off the felucca and sniffed the ground, he hunched his back and began to walk around sniffing the air for suspicious scent. "I can sense it… a wild monster is around." Set exclaimed with his eyes appeared to have a blood red iris narrowed like a lion as he prowled the area for signs of the monster.

"Okay, since we know it's tied to the vines, we should either follow the vines to the source, or can someone use them to trace back to whatever is doing this?" Taiyou asked.

They soon heard a loud scream shrieking through the lush jungle along the riverbanks this was also followed by a loud unearthly roared of Set echoing through the jungle with his axe slashing and hacking something. "Sounds like trouble. Come on, let's go!" Horus exclaimed as he lit up like a star and slammed down on the ground where Set was, the dive bombing marked Set with an Eye of Horus symbol, marking him protected by Horus's divinity, a nearby young girl was also marked with the same symbol. Said little girl was entangled in what appeared to be long and sentient vines but once Horus symbol was on her, it let go and slithered away.

"Get that child out of here! I'll handle this!" Set ordered Horus loudly. "But uncle Set! It's not something-" Horus exclaimed trying to convince Set only to have his uncle dismissed him almost immediately. "Just do it! I don't accept anymore collaterals in Faiyum! Besides, he doesn't want me…" He sighed out in a depressed manner before throwing himself into a bundle of vines with his battle axe in hand slashing and slicing them apart to buy time for Horus. The falcon crown prince nodded and grabbed the little girl in both hands and lift off, flying towards Anubis and the other members of the group.

"So we've confirmed the vines are actively attacking. Do we help Set first, or find the source, since we KNOW these are 'tips'?" Taiyou asked.

"Set's busy fighting so I'd say let's go and help him." Horus remarked before putting the little girl down and let her run back to her mother. Anubis sighed out less than enthusiastic about the matter and ran into the lush jungle and found Set to be fighting bundles of vines like serpents. He acrobatically leap and dived with his axe in hand slashing vines apart like fighting serpents.

Taiyou saw that whenever a vine lurched too close to Set, he quickly sliced the vine effortlessly before making backhand flips away to summon his sand spawns and ordered them to rush through the bundle of vines with a Skewered attack. He then teleported into the spawns with a sandstorm localized around him like a walking tornado as he slash and hack the vines.

Several more vines started appearing, this time they took on the form of flowers that released bursts of powders that were various poisons...not that they got far, as a Fire Burst from Taiyou burned the powder and vines, rendering the poison useless.

"Come and get a good look at this!" Set suddenly dropped his axe on the ground with his spines suddenly glow red with his pose being more feral and he ran on all fours climbing up the trees where he found a Baboon with its legs begin nothing more than long bundles of vines that he had been chopping and slashing. He then lunged at the baboon's face clawing and slashing with his sharp as knife claws and literally bite his face. The Baboon being feral and fight back at Set clawing and hissing and howling at him before using one of its vines to tie him up and began to drain him.

"Oh no you don't!" Taiyou growled, using his sword and reflector to cut through the vines, causing them to drop Set.

When Set fell to the ground with a loud thud, he grunted in pain and cried out in anger and frustration at how he was defeated by a baboon and pushed himself up from the ground. He saw that Anubis was next to him throwing out a Mummify stun attack at the vines. It ensnared the vines and he summoned Grasping Hands once again to tug at the monster preventing the Baboon from escaping. He then levitated off the ground firing his Death Gaze which caused the Baboon to shriek and cry for help before jumping away from Anubis's ray.

The Baboon shrieked angrily as it jumped around, and soon latched onto Horus's face and tried to drain him too.

"Eeeeek! Get it off! Get it off me! He'll ruin my beautiful face!" Horus shrieked out and lost his direction as he stumbled on the ground rolling to try and get the Baboon off of his face while Set huffed out. "What a loser." Said Set as he casually walk over and kicked the Baboon on the side trying to get it off of Horus only for Horus to roll around with it. "Alright looks like I need to use some drastic measures." Said Set as he held up his battle axe ready to slash it despite it might injure Horus.

Taiyou saw that and tackled Set aside. "Are you crazy?! You'd hit Horus if you attack carelessly!" Saying that though, he casted a shallow Power Slash, which injured the back of the baboon, causing it to screech in pain and jump off of Horus.

The Baboon reacted with predictable shrieking sound in pain as it hopped off of Horus face and ran for the oasis's pond but as it was heading to the water, Set pushed Taiyou aside and ran up with his battle axe in hand, he tossed the axe flying at the monkey as it was running for the water, landing a hit on its back as it jumped for a swan dive.

This was the killing blow he seek for and the monkey crashed down into the water dead. The monster dissolved from existence with its skeletal remains charred by immolation while the Vine technique returned to Taiyou. "Yess! I've defeated a monster! I, Set Sutekh, have triumphed over evil once again!" Set exclaimed cheerfully as he ran to pick up the axe.

"...I don't think this is it," Taiyou said. "Greensprout is a brush that is by nature with 3 aspects. However, when mine was taken, they were unified...and I still sense the link. I don't think this Baboon was all there is."

"What!? You mean there are more out there lurking somewhere and potentially threaten Faiyum?" Set growled out impatiently seemingly not pleased by the fact that there's more to be done. "Until the boy says it's safe, never assume you're done." Said Anubis in a dry tone and Set could do little but nodded to this notion in defeat. "Fine, I concede that there are more dangers out there. But I happily accept them as chances to improve my reputation through deeds!" Set proclaimed prompting Horus to look away and went around looking for survivors and possible people still remaining there.

"He's always like this?" Kassandra asked Horus as she walked with him finding the survivors. "Unfortunately so, I met him enough times to know. But at the same time… I always find it odd. He seems to worry about all sorts of things and they all lead to me and Anubis." the crown prince mused with a sigh as they soon came across a riverside where the Egyptian people were found.

"...in short, your uncle is a Tsundere then?" Issun spoke up. "If you're wondering what that means, its someone who actually cares but for some reason keeps acting like they don't."

"Uhhh that sounds rather odd… I think this is why Set is uptight, he's always relatable to foreigners. I bet 50 Drachma that tonight he'll be in the same old inn drinking his sorrow away." Horus stuttered and stopped when he stood over what appeared to be a pile of human remains drained and paled with their boats trashed and half submerged.

He counted at least 50 dead there, his face turned pale with his beak hung wide open at the number of dead people in the mud, half buried. "Get back and tell Anubis… he's not going to be happy to see this." Said Horus as Kassandra obeyed him and quickly marathon her way back to Anubis and Set.

[hr]

Krokodilopolis was now in mourning as the city's funerary parlor was busy preparing the 50 dead people for burial with mummification process being personally oversee by Anubis. Taiyou, Kassandra and Horus were outside waiting but they knew that it would take a while before Anubis was done. "Well he'll be busy there for a while, how about we go for a drink or something? Maybe book a seat at the gladiatorial arena." Horus suggested to them.

"I think I'd like that…" Taiyou sighed. He hated knowing that these things were using his powers even if they were stolen. Sure he wasn't going to blame himself for them, but he still felt a sense of responsibility…

Kassandra seemed to notice this and spoke up as well. "A break might be good," she agreed.

Horus nodded to them both. "Then it's settled, come on kids, I know the place." He then led them towards the other side of Krokodilopolis and as they were walking towards the Arena in question, they noticed that the city's canal and occasionally the muddy river banks had crocodiles lying lazily on the ground for a sunbath, at first they appeared to be rather menacing but as Horus walked over they seem to hesitate to attack. Leaving Kassandra and Taiyou free to walk down the streets unmolested by their deadly jaws. "Don't mind them, they're on lunch break." Horus remarked half joking.

"Glad to hear that," Taiyou chuckled lightly.

Once they have arrived at the arena they saw a Roman standing by the gates of the arena holding a piece of papyrus paper in his hand with a pencil in the other, he was jotting down the names of gladiators in his arena when he saw Horus coming towards him. He quickly rolled the list up and clasped it in his armpit and held up his right hand in a Roman salute towards Horus and Taiyou.

"Salve. Hail spectators, I, Septimius Dollarius, welcome you to the arena of Croccodiles. Here those who are about to die, salute you to their most impressive feat of spectacle. For a price of 25 Drachma per ticket please." He quickly held up a slew of tickets to the arena and held them out for them expecting that Horus will pay for luxuries.

Taiyou and Kassandra looked at the price list...and noticed 25 Drachma was for the 'Optima' seats, in contrast to a second option which was the 'Plebeian' seats...which costs only 12 Drachma. "...what's the difference between Optima and Plebeian, aside from clearly one is more expensive and thus would likely have better seating?" Taiyou asked.

"Well of course the Optima seats would be better placed. Furthermore, food and drink will be provided, the same not the case for the Plebeian option," Septimius said.

Taiyou looked at it for a few more moments then… "I'll take a Plebeian seat," he said simply, giving 12 Drachma.

"Two Plebeian tickets it is. Hail spectators." He then took 24 Drachma from Taiyou and Kassandra in total while then holding up an Optima ticket to Horus and felt that it was going to be a surefire sell. Then he saw Horus gave a wryly smile at it, a bit hesitant but soon capitulated by giving him 25 Drachma to buy the ticket. "Excellent! We shall commence the game in exactly 4 days!" Septimius proclaimed proudly to them as he then continued counting the slaves he had for the gladiatorial arena to come.

"Let's find a seat before they fill up," Taiyou suggested.

"Good idea," Kassandra agreed as the two went to their section to get a seat. They found a decent spot, a bit to the side, but still offered them a decent view of the events.

They found that Horus will be seated at the Optima box just above the entrance of the finest gladiator in the arena. The position itself was speaking of royalties with servant at the ready with fan and beverages. Their seat will be crowded and next to other screaming spectators no doubt. The arena below was a sandy arena with lots of traps, devices and gimmicks to make the games much more impressive and sometimes ludicrous. "Let's hope we don't have a fat man obstructing the way. Then again let's hope for one. He might be a good shield for flying objects." Kassandra remarked sarcastically.

"I'll deflect any if they come our way," Taiyou said, before sighing. "So these are gladiator games, huh? Do they always end with someone dying or is there a chance both can walk out of this alive?" he asked.

"I heard they died a lot. From hearing the crowd chanting." Kassandra replied with a bit of wit as she looked at the sandy arena floor below.

"...I don't get it," Taiyou blinked.

"I heard from word of mouth of friends. If the crowds chant their favorite name long enough, the loser gets axed off by a match with Sobek himself. But that's friend advertisement. May or may not be real." Kassandra explained with a bit of a giggle to it. Issun however did not take it well hearing the supposed brutality.

"Eeeek! These Romans take death that easily? I mean don't they value human lives?" He asked and saw Kassandra shook her head. "You heard it from the man himself. We who are about to die salute you. They face death every day from wars to diseases to executioner. So gladiators are a way for them to see and face death in an honorable way."

"I see…" Taiyou sighed. "If it's okay with you, I think I'll leave before it gets that far," he said. However, when he did, Kassandra put a hand on his shoulder.

"What's bothering you?" she asked simply.

"Well just in case if something is flung at us." Taiyou smiled nervously almost like his father when he too smiled nervously to Ammy.

"Fair enough. Though I doubt a fat sweaty Gaul can fly that far." Kassandra remarked with a bit of humor added to her word before they left the arena having booked their seats and went out to find Anubis to see if he was done with mummification. The trio returned to the morgue and funeral parlor of the temple of Sobek, there they found that Anubis was inside working on some mummies with Set being a distant person behind Anubis leaning against the corner of the parlor watching his son hard at work on the last body, finishing it like it was the last thing he can do.

"Done yet?" Set asked. "Almost," Anubis remarked coldly as he wrapped bandages around the mummy before planting the amulet on its chest to protect the heart in the deceased person path to the afterlife.

"Anything we can help?" Taiyou asked a solemnly when they came near.

"It's done, nothing more is needed." Said Anubis as he helped the priests and workers there put the mummy inside a sarcophagus and another and another. Eventually after stacking them like nesting dolls, Anubis put on the burial mask for the sarcophagus and dust his hands, Set then walked out of the dark corner and slipped through Taiyou and Kassandra out to meet with Horus.

"Nephew, what do you think should I do? You and I we reconciled yes, but Anubis… he's the last of my family. My son but he doesn't want to let me come back into his life." Set asked Horus with a depressed sigh as Anubis walked out noticing his illegitimate father's hunched down pose but acted like he didn't care, he looked away and pretended to not wanting to talk to Set. "Uncle Set, I… I don't know. I love Anubis yes, I care about you too since you keep chaos in check. But knowing Anubis… I doubt I can be of help to you." Horus sighed out hopelessly but Taiyou could see that Anubis was sitting down by a roadside bench and looked away from Set's general direction.

Sighing a little, he decided to go over to Anubis. "Something's bothering you, and I'm quite sure its to do with Set," Taiyou said, standing behind him.

"Malaka (Fuck), that neket iadet (motherfucker) murdered my mother. He could have had my love and respect but he neglected me and tried to murder me." Anubis growled and huffed out and looked away from Set, Taiyou could tell there was a scar on Anubis's forehead, he didn't know how it was there but the trace and pattern suggest something sharp was used on Anubis forehead in a torture like manner.

"He wasn't my father… he hates me…" Anubis mumbled with his hands held up to his face, covering both eyes as if to hide his tears and pain. Taiyou could tell that Anubis was having a hard time trying to suppress his survivor's guilt and emotion. Much more importantly is his attempt to deny Set's genuine effort to reconnect with his son.

Taiyou sighed. "I...won't even try to pretend I can understand how you're feeling right now," Taiyou said. "But...I can tell he's...trying to make up for what he's done. I'm not asking you to forget what he's done but...I think it would help both of you to TRY and forgive the past. Neither of you are going anywhere, and I don't think the pain is doing either of you any favors…" he sighed.

"I'll forgive it… when I know I can." Anubis said defeatedly but at the same time he seemed to have a difficult time letting go of the memories of his mother, the only mother he ever had. Taiyou once returned to Set saw that he was pacing back and forth in a circle in front of Horus while Horus morphed himself into a feral falcon with a crown on his head and perched on Kassandra's shoulder watching.

"Just the usual?" Set asked Taiyou hopelessly and saw him nodding. "I knew it. That's the problem, I can't do anything if he doesn't let me try. I'd be damned if he actually surprises me with an opportunity he offer willingly." Set sighed out and sit down on the pavement looking up at the setting sun.

"I'm sorry uncle but maybe… maybe we should try have Anubis go to the mountain nearby, a little hermit spot might help him find clarity in heart and mind." Horus suggested and pointed his feathery wing to the nearby mountain range surrounding Faiyum where perching on the mountain top was a hermit meditative spot.

"I think...that you're going to need a better approach than this," Taiyou spoke up. "There's no nice way to say this. You made mistakes, but those mistakes hurt Anubis a LOT. If you want to try to reconnect...I don't think you'll be able to do it by acting like those things never happened...and for sun's sake, don't stick him in the room his mother was killed in," he said the last bit in a rather annoyed tone.

Set groaned out annoyed at Taiyou's insistency and his persistent attitude on the matter. "Alright! If you think that's what's best then I'll give it a shot. But I warn you it won't be an easy win not with his stubborn attitude." Said Set with an annoyed growled and an almost feral snarl at Taiyou before turning his back on Taiyou. He then sighed out and walked away trying to think about something, Taiyou and Kassandra noticed that he was heading back to the Temple of Sobek possibly for the unknown poison found earlier. Anubis however were still lingering there to watch out for the youngsters. "I know what you are thinking. To follow or not to follow that is the question." Said Horus with a sigh looking at the two.

"Is it always this complicated with your family?" Taiyou asked with a sigh.

Horus nodded to Taiyou with a sympathetic sigh. "I'm afraid so, the problem is simple things obstruct by pride." Said Horus as he watched Set walking off towards the crocodile enclosure where Petsuchos was hanging around sitting idly by with her eyes still bleeding. Sobek was present there and he was furious to see this, throwing into a fit of rage, he tossed the vases, furniture around and slam his massive war axe on the floor cracking the tile.

"Who is responsible for this? I demand their head on a platter! Better yet, them alive so I can pulverize their heads!" Sobek roared and hissed ferociously to the various priests and high priests in the temple who trembled with fear at Sobek's rage.

"And I think our next biggest concern is...damage control..." Taiyou sighed. "I'm going to guess that's Sobek?"

"Yes, the crocodile deity and He Who Swims in the Nile. I'll deal with this." Said Set as he came up to Sobek's side and swung his axe in a sudden striking at the crocodile's soft underbelly in a sudden. Not able to see this strike, Sobek grunted and coughed out painfully before falling back and tumble over with a bleeding flesh wound. "It's a flesh wound, now calm down." Set replied coldly before looking at the enclosure once again before noticing something he didn't see before. Human footprints leading from the enclosure towards gated off section of the drainage ditch. "Hello suspicious signs, where have you been the entire time?" Set mused with his ears perked up and his eyes fixed firmly on the footprints in the mud.

"I'd imagine that this might lead us to whoever is responsible," Taiyou spoke up. "The question is...why?" he frowned.

"Only one way to find out." Set said as he leapt down at the gated drainage that to find that the door was made from simple bent together reeds to keep the water out, he opened it and followed the drainage out to the riverbank of the Nile where there were crocodiles seen swimming and circling around the river.

"Their hunting ground, nothing unusual here. But better keep an eye out." Said Set as he tracked the footprints away from the riverbank towards the busy part of town. That was where he smelled something foul in the air. "Boy, you smell that?" He asked Taiyou as he sniffed the air.

"I don't think any god worth their salts could miss THAT," Taiyou gagged a little.

Set nodded as he then relaxed his arms and began to walk out towards the neighborhood of the working class, as he passed by a color dye area, the scent of filthy rotting meat grew strong and worse still was the apparent smell of blood in the air. "A slaughterhouse… with our suspect heading there too no less." Said Set as he walked towards the door of the slaughterhouse where the stench came from and quickly leap on the roof. He approached the open air skylight where he looked down and saw various men working on captured crocodiles.

He growled in anger and with a feral snarl he summoned his sand spawns inside the workshop and they automatically attack the workers there with claws and teeth. "Spawns, strike!" He ordered them and through them, he performed a skewed attack at the men who were working there before quickly teleporting down.

With his sandstorm to beef up his attacks, he quickly dived down and slash and hack at the defenseless workers and in seconds he cleared up the place with only a single survivor whimpering in fear and coiled up in a fetal position looking at how menacing he was.

"I think you got them," Taiyou said, walking up to the survivor. "Now, we want you to tell us, who is heading this and why. Give us what we want and you have my word you'll be allowed to live."

"We… we… were… working…" He stuttered traumatized and horrified at Set's aggressive practices. Around them were numerous crocodiles, spawns of Sobek, slain and mummified in a hasty manner. So poorly was their work that it would drive Anubis to rage mirroring that of Set, the crocs were cut open, their organs removed and their mummification was done with salts and poorly made linen fabric instead of natron and carefully weaved linen fabric. And within their innards, were gold Drachma coins and once the process was finished, the crocs were to be placed on rafts and presumably left to be ferried down the river.

"You were killing all these crocodiles to smuggle money...do you have any idea how stupid that is?" Taiyou growled. "Not only is this horrible, if, and as you can see, you have been found out, there is little to protect you from Sobek's wrath!"

"Yes. Perhaps a feast in the sacred crocodile enclosure. With you as the feast itself!" Set threatened the man even more as he grabbed the mortal's head and lifted him up to his feet. "Please no! Don't do it, I'll confess. We were told to catch crocodiles, mummify them and then send them down stream to a drop off. In exchange a lily pad will float to us and we make the non lethal poison for the ring leader."; "Who?" Set asked demandingly. "It is… Heruhotep. The High Priest of Sobek himself." Said the man and whimpered in fear asking for forgiveness before breaking into tears.

Taiyou let that sink in for a moment, before letting out an annoyed growl and facepalmed. "Again? As if Isidorah wasn't enough…" he groaned.

"He better have some Drachma left in his pocket. For Anubis shall charge him extra." Said Set before leaving the man and kicked the wooden door of the slaughterhouse down allowing the guards of the city to swarm in and take care of the rest.


	7. Chapter 7: Gross Green

Chapter 7: Gross Green

Anubis with his signature stubbornness was now relegated in an inn with Horus as the two were sipping goblets of Egyptian beer waiting for Taiyou to come home with Set. Kassandra sat next to Horus and whispered a question to his ear. "How much will you bet for bad news to come with Set?" Hearing this the avian crown prince blurted out and coughed violently nearly spilling his drink.

"For real? You bet my Drachma on that? But oh well… I guess I can accept 50 Drachma, Spartan women are so nasty." Said Horus with his face green with admonishment. "Get used to it, at least they can snap the neck of any man inconvenient us." Anubis remarked coldly before sipping his beer.

As they were waiting, Set came into the inn and pushed the door in with Taiyou and came over to their table with Set sighing out. "Found out how Petsuchos was poisoned, one corrupt High Priest, a slaughterhouse of sloppily made crocodile mummies stuffed with money. And a trade of lily pads that somehow emit poison." As expected Anubis spat out his drink in absolute disgust as he heard from Set. "Malaka! What did you say old man?" Anubis coughed and grumbled half drunkenly. "Pay up your majesty, it's for your good reputation."

"Uh...Anubis? How much have you had to drink?" Taiyou sighed. He'd seen THIS kind of situation enough times.

"Too hard? Don't be foolish, I'm only two goblets in." Said Anubis as he coughed out with his cheeks were slightly red with blush and he pushed himself up while also hiccup. Horus seeing this was rather concerned as he begrudgingly handed over 50 Drachma to Kassandra who happily took it and count the money.

"One step closer to pay for my own farm." Said Kassandra with a sly smirk at Horus grumpy face. "Bagh, he's downplaying it. I can tell he's basically busy drinking for too long now. Come on, let's go home son, you could use some rest." Said Set as he picked up Anubis by his hands and carry him on his back.

"Put him in a different room this time!" Taiyou called after Set, before sitting down and sighing. "This stay is going to be fun," he groaned, ordering a drink. He wasn't much of a drinker, but right now he felt he could use one.

"Trust me Chibi, I've seen these types before, I think he's going to ignore your word and put Anubis inside that SAME bedroom again!" Said Issun as he bounced up and down. Horus nodded to Taiyou and stroke his feathery chin with his falcon talons. "Indeed. I think Set want to do something akin to turn back the clock… maybe something like a loving father for once even when his son doesn't want him."

Taiyou's response was to bang his head on the table at that. "This...can only go badly if you're right…" he groaned into the table, before looking at Horus tiredly. "Congratulations, your family is officially one of the few people who have actually made me seriously consider drinking thanks to their nonsense."

"Who knows you might win a drinking game whenever something Set does weird you out." Said Horus as he drank his beer goblet.

Taiyou's response was to chug his drink. "I'm REALLY hoping it doesn't come to that…" he groaned.

"Olympians meddle, Egyptian heckle. That's the differences I see." Kassandra snarked as she drank some Egyptian beer to enjoy herself. "Still let's go to see what is Set doing this time. I'm willing to…" She was interrupted by Horus however who held up his talon at her muzzle to prevent her from speaking the last word. "No more betting young lady. Best not to gamble when you're still young." Said Horus as he left the table and gestured for them to follow him. "Young? Me? I am already too old to be grounded." Kassandra retorted.

"You sure? You sometimes act like a kid," Taiyou teased good naturedly. "Or maybe I just don't fully get the snark sometimes."

Horus then flew the two lycans towards Philadelphia before landed down on the main entrance of Set's estate where they found that Set was apparently nowhere to be seen. They walked inside, finding the estate though well maintained had seen better days with the furniture being old and rusty or sometimes dusty. Signs of time tearing away at them and the mansion seem to give them the impression that Set was frozen in time and unable to move on from the past he made for himself and Anubis.

Hung on the walls were portraits of Nephthys, Set and Anubis. These were expensive commissioned portraits by Greco-Roman artists and painters depicting what could have been the beginning of a normal and loving family. Set as a strong and proud father in his armor and governor uniform and Nephthys holding an infant Anubis in her arms, lovingly cradled a puppy wrapped in protective cloth and linen fabric.

"I've...heard about the stories," Taiyou mused. "According to them you and Anubis are half brothers, but...are you SURE that's really the case?" he couldn't help but ask. "I guess looking at this picture, I really CAN see Anubis being Set's son in the family resemblance part."

"Well… we don't care about patternity." Horus sighed out to Taiyou looking at the pictures in the frame feeling a deep sense of sympathy towards the family that could have been. "Does it matter about who his father really was? He needed a family, we were all that we had when I was a child on Rhodos. He was my brother, and I will protect him no matter what." Horus stated with a slight croaked in his neck as he looked away from the photo frames hanging on the wall.

He then walked away from them and climbed the stairs towards where he knew Set would put Anubis, in the same bedroom as before. But when he crept up to the doorway, he stopped and pressed himself up against the wall and listen in. He heard Set was sitting next to the bed where Anubis was sleeping and snoring loudly. The deity of chaos was holding a papyrus scroll in his hand and reading what could best be described as a bedtime story that Anubis would love to hear, the battle of Thermopylae.

"I didn't mean my question in THAT way," Taiyou sighed. "I guess its to do with the start of this whole issue…"

Horus nodded and sighed out and gestured for them to head down stairs and wait for Set to come down. "Let him have this moment, learn to be soft for once." Horus remarked as he went downstairs with them and let Set continue reading the story of the brave 300 Spartans of King Leonidas I making their stand against the invading Persian hordes.

Set let out a soft smile under his mask as he read the scroll parchment, seeing that Anubis was sleeping peacefully like a child he rolled it up and place in on a desk next to the bed. The desk appeared to be worn wood and old to the point of cracking at some point soon. Set then walked out of the room, not before looking back at Anubis one more time before coming downstairs seeing his visitors. "Oh well, at least I have guests." Said Set.

"Sorry for just letting ourselves in," Taiyou said. "But we figured you might have been asleep."

"Me?" Set asked confusedly before looking up to the second floor knowing that they might be lying to him. "I can hardly sleep anymore… most of the friends and families I had are gone. Seeing Anubis back… I don't know what else to do but to bring him home. Hastily as I might be, it was my only shot at keeping him here, long enough to make amends." Set sighed out depressedly before looking at the picture frames hanging on the wall seeing Nephthys and Anubis in years past and knew he could never bring back those times.

"...you really do want to make up for that, don't you?" Taiyou asked with a sigh.

"I do… But does intention alone suffice? When your son hates your very existence and crave your destruction as a prelude to his own suicide?" Set grumbled bitterly and clenched his hands into a balled up fist and held it tight.

"It won't be, but even if you want to put actions behind them, you can't just do so thoughtlessly," Taiyou sighed. "What you're doing right now may end up making it worse. You need to make your intentions clear, but you also need to consider his feelings too."

Set sighed out and went to the backyard of the estate to clear his mind, out there he saw a garden decorated with mosaic style architect and a massive swimming pool in the center flanked by plants of different types. "I've tried. You just hadn't faced ordeals like mine, to have your own blood, your own son disown you and castrate you. Now you want to make amends, and he is having none of it… my greatest sin is murdering my wife." Said Set as he sat down and began to weep in silence with his hands held up shielding his face from others.

Taiyou frowned sadly, before sitting down next to Set. He didn't say anything. He was just silently showing he was willing to listen.

"Look, no amount of words can actually get through to Anubis. You know he's stubborn as an ox, at this point trying to convince him that I mean well is an exercise in futility." Said Set in a rather depressed manner as he sighed out depressedly at the situation he was in knowing that nothing can be done to improve his situation. "My son isn't going to let me improve, he won't see me for who I am, but for the murderer that I was. That is what people will do to you." Said Set in a defeatist tone as looked away hiding his face in shame while Horus gestured for Taiyou to come away with him.

"But at the same time you can't just give up. It'll take a long time for sure...but if you really want this to improve, then you can't give up on it. You can't rush it, but you can't get discouraged either," Taiyou said.

Horus sighed out knowing that Set was at a deadlock with Anubis and Taiyou was not going to help the situation with his words and motivating good will, Horus came to him and held his hand and tugged him to leave Set be. "Come on, we'll rethink this somewhere else." Said Horus as he then led Taiyou and Kassandra out of the estate.

"For the time being there's nothing we can do to anyone of them. Let's take down the poison lily first just to put the city and Faiyum in a better position. Agree?" He asked looking at both of them with Kassandra nodding to him. "I suppose, maybe just give them a Xiphos and see who stab the other first with it." She suggested grimly and sarcastically.

"Probably the only thing we can do for now," Taiyou sighed.

Horus then led them with him away from Philadelphia towards the north of Faiyum by a marsh land where fields of flax was dotted with the flocks of herons and ibises, under the luminous moonlight, above the gold san and murky green water of the Nile, the herons flapped their wings and took off from the ground when the crown prince came close to them. Horus looked around finding a place to be rather calm and serene and yet they flew away. "I don't know about you but this doesn't feel right. Hmmm maybe you two should get back to the inn. It's a bit late now to do anything."

Kassandra yawned and nodded to Horus's suggestion as she stretched herself. "Yes, I maybe nocturnal but there are no helots for me to kill tonight. And it's not the culling season either." Said Kassandra as Horus would help them return to the inn where they were staying for the evening, however as they return and entered the inn, a figure caught their attention.

An avian deity with long elongated beak and lush green feathery head with a tint of turquoise on the top, it was a male deity for certain with a tall slender body but still sport quite a bit of muscle on his body from pectoral to abdomen and arms and legs. He appeared to be seated by the wooden table with his book in hand and he read it attentively. "Thoth? Great Vizier is that you? What brings you to Faiyum?" Horus asked in surprise running over to Thoth prompting the wise Vizier to lower his book and greet the young and spry falcon crown prince.

"Well hello there Horus, your apparent prolonged time away from the palace requires some clarifications. Therefore, I came to Faiyum and found you here from words of priests of Sobek." Said Thoth as he shook Horus's hand and pulled the crown prince in for a hug and patted his back. He soon broke away from the hug and noticed the two canines following Horus and unlike others, Thoth's keen eyes and knowledge knew that this was Taiyou. "Ah I see that you have taken over from Anubis as the guardian of the Crown Prince of the Sun, haven't you? How is your stay in Egypt so far young one?" He asked Taiyou in a friendly manner before shaking Taiyou's hand.

"Other than the...mishap early on, I'm enjoying my stay in this great land," Taiyou said with a friendly smile. "Though...since we mentioned that, do you perhaps have something that can help with that?"

Thoth stroke his chin in thought cautiously rationalizing what was presented to him. "Hmmm in due time young one. I think I might be able to help but must know of your problem." Said Thoth as he inspected Taiyou's divine marking seeing that there was a significant lack of divine marking on the white wolf. "Perhaps you can start with this High Vizier." Said Horus as he handed Thoth Anubis's satchel containing the strange golden sphere known as the Aten found in Thebes.

Taking the sphere from Horus's talons Thoth gasped in awe seeing the sphere knowing that it was nothing to be taken lightly. "My my, what do we have here? I have heard tales of the golden apples of Erys. And then there are tales of the Precursors artifacts, this may be the first time I ever see one." Said Thoth in awe as he held up the sphere and it began to glow in his palms, the Vizier quickly lowered it and hid it inside the satchel and gestured for them to go upstairs. "Let's go upstairs I think some privacy would help. But even then, the walls have eyes." Said Thoth.

"Then perhaps something to ensure nobody can spy on us is necessary," Taiyou frowned. "A silence and concealing spell maybe?"

"Perhaps but know that there is no absolute guarantees." Thoth stated to them and led them up to the second floor of the inn where he locked the door to a room where they would stay in for the night. He then casted a spell from his Tome to render the room quiet as a tomb, blocking off the sound from penetrating the walls and disturbed others. "Now then, let's see what we have." Thoth then picked the sphere up and inspected it again and found that the artifact glow like the sun of Ra once again, he tried to contain his awe and excitement and continued to inspect its appearance carefully.

"From the look of this artifact, this seems to suggest that this artifact might have been around before the times of any known human civilizations. Before the first pharaohs, and even longer." Thoth mused as he noticed the sphere glow even brighter showing them what could best be described as a holographic image of what appeared to be a city, somewhere out at sea with circular floor plans with the city districts being rings around a massive citadel.

Then the holographic images changed to show what appeared to be Zeus killing Kronos and disemboweling the Titan's stomach and brought the siblings of his out to rule Olympus. Then showed them the same city once again, now sunk after the sea around it being struck by a massive meteor that tossed up a tsunami sinking the city in the process.

"I...don't fully understand," Taiyou frowned. "What does this artifact have to do with these images?" he asked.

Thoth stroked his chin in thought seeing that the strange images seem to have some sort of relation towards one another. "I believe that these maybe memories. Memories stored within this artifact. But how to access and handle it is still a mystery to me." Said Thoth as he mused the artifact's surface and held it in hand.

"So… you're telling us there is an ancient precursor civilization beyond the mortals that we rule over today?" Horus asked profusely with his eyes blunk. "Indeed. You're familiar with the Atlantis thought experiment aren't you Horus?" Thoth asked the crown prince and the falcon nodded immediately. "I do, it's a must read for us in the library. Plato's Republic and his other works before Aristotle, or maybe Socrates." Thoth then continued his thought process as he once again managed to use his Magical Tome to interface with the sphere.

"Indeed. The city presented here, it fits with many of Plato's writing in terms of Atlantis description. I do not know if Atlantis does exist for real but this seem to suggest that they may have been the precursors to the Greeks and many other civilizations. And the gods they worship may have been the primordials." Said Thoth.

"That...could make sense," Taiyou mused. "But then...what does that mean for us right now in the present? Are the Primordials trying to make a come back?"

"No." Thoth denied outright, as he looked at the sphere showing them the images of what ensued after the destruction of Atlantis and the Primordial in different places began to come to term to their newer generation of deities. In Egypt, they saw a young Ra standing by the Nile, next to his mother Neith and he held in his hands a scepter of the sun, the divine solar scepter that he held till this day. In Hellas, Zeus and his Olympians became rulers of Olympus and they forged a new era for humanity as a whole while then in other places like Nippon, Izanagi created Ammy alongside her siblings while he was purifying himself.

"Then...what do you think they want?" Taiyou sighed, feeling like they were dancing around the issue.

"Not they… But I believe it is only one." Said Thoth as Horus heard this and nodded to his hypothesis. "Kek and whatever he's doing." The falcon prince remarked giving Thoth a moment to ponder his thought and agreed to the Crown Prince's hypothesis. "Indeed, I heard that young Taiyou here has had his powers stolen by Kek, didn't you? Obviously Kek is the last Primordial God of old right now. Ra can be argued as a Primordial descendant but he is that vindictive." The High Vizier mused.

"True...Kek DID mention something along those lines when I fought him," Taiyou frowned. "But so far it doesn't seem like he's been doing anything clear. He's been distributing my powers all over Egypt, which helps us since I can take them back each time we defeat whatever is holding it. If he's got some master plan, he doesn't seem to be doing anything we can clearly see."

"Thoth, this thing was found in Thebes in Isidorah's hands. She was able to use it to conjure Shadows of Pharaoh past, each one was apparently in possession of a magical power of the boy." Horus added to Thoth, to which the High Vizier eeped out in surprise finding the odd specification. "Really now? That is truly concerning I will need some time to study this artifact. Perhaps I can derive a way to help you with it."

"Any help would be appreciated," Taiyou nodded. "And if you can give us a clue as to what Kek wants, that'd help too."

Thoth nodded and put the sphere back into the bag and snapped his talons, dispelled his own spell and left the place quietly, but as he opened the door and looked around left and right, he glanced back over his shoulders at the occupants in the room. "And Anubis?" he asked them expecting at least one of them to know the answer.

"Well he's uh… little occupied right now at Set's." Horus replied sheepishly and shrugged to Thoth. The Ibis deity sighed out knowing that it could only be trouble once Anubis wake up. "I hate to imagine what will happen when he wakes up. I'll be back." Said Thoth as he closed the door and apparently went out of the inn somewhere safe to begin his research.

[hr]

After spending their night in the inn, Kassandra and Taiyou were able to leave at last and tackle the mystery that was nagging at their bones, the toxin Lily. The trio set out from the Inn tracking the flow of the mummy crocs down river towards where the Lily was supposedly found. As they went down the roads with Horus accompanying them, he sighed out in relief, slightly. "You know it's surprisingly quiet this morning, I haven't seen Anubis running back to us with Set running after him." Said Horus as he glanced his eyes around looking for signs of Anubis coming to find them but nothing so far.

"...should we check in on them first?" Taiyou checked.

"Maaaaaybe after we're done with the Lily thingy. After that I'll introduce you all to my wife and her tribe." Said Horus as he planted his hands on his hips and stroke his chin in thought. He dismissed his concern and continued.

"Alright, if you're sure," Taiyou nodded.

"I don't know if I'm certain of it to begin with. But at least you can bet some of my Drachma off if you like." Said Horus with a grimace on his face when he looked over to Kassandra knowing that she would pocket that money from Taiyou anyway. As they came towards a farmland to the North of Faiyum, they found the farmers there were tending to the crops but they were putting face masks to protect them from some forms of miasma or toxic air.

To make matters worse it would seem that the farmers were struggling to stay focused on the job with something impeding them. Some farmers have already dropped to the ground unconscious and Taiyou saw that in the air was some sort of nerve toxin that was dropping the mortals one by one. "Ugh, I can't breath in this air. Owww my eyes! They're bleeding!" One of the farmers screeched out in pain. There was no signs to suggest they will die, but there were plenty of similarities between the humans and Petsuchos.

"This is bad!" Taiyou growled. "We need to get these people out of here!" he was already trying to get people away from the areas where whatever this stuff was could affect them.

Kassandra coughed out and began to collapse to her knees trying to hold herself up, already she had to rely on Horus for help to keep her standing upright. "Y-you c-can't save them all...take out...the Lily, wherever...it might be." Kassandra coughed out and struggled to balance between opening and closing her eyes to prevent herself from suffering the same fate as the farmers. Horus too began to cough and felt his vision hazy as he held up a piece of cloth as a makeshift mask while struggling to bring Kassandra with him out of the affected area.

Taiyou also was coughing, but he didn't give up in trying to pull people away, using what power he had to resist the effects of the poisons. "How many more are there?!" he shouted as he finished dragging another person away, looking ready to run back in.

"Too many…" Horus grunted as he too began to cough out as he collapsed to his knees before falling on the sand himself trying to shield Kassandra with his feathery body. The farmland of Faiyum would sooner or later get to Taiyou, lest he destroy the Lily soon. But the question was, where? Where could that Lily be? One guess was the riverbanks nearby to explain how it could have emitted such powerful miasma.

Taiyou thought hard about the matter too, coming to the same conclusion. "...is there any place that these riverbanks all connect to?!" he asked urgently. "If its spreading this miasma, it could be coming from the source!"

As he frantically searched around for the source of the Miasma, he soon came across what appeared to be a purple Lily standing out from the rest of the green lily pads. This one appeared to have a Kanji character on it that Taiyou could recognize as "Poison" with the thick cloud of Miasma seemingly coming off of it. Rather, it was coming from a single black toad with red patterns sitting on it. The frog let out its "Ribbit" sound and sat idly without doing anything but the people around the farming area continue to fall down unconscious.

"Its here!" Taiyou shouted, pulling out his sword and moving to cut down the lily as soon as he could, but was forced to evade when the toad suddenly went for him, the seemingly normal toad suddenly growing till it was the size of Master Anura, the toad demon he'd fought in his younger days. "Out of the way!" Taiyou growled, summoning his Reflector and hurling it at the toad, hitting the toad in the head, knocking it away, but not before it lashed out with its tongue and pulled him out of the air, tossing him aside.

"Ribbit, hohohohohoho. To what pleasure do I have for fighting you. I, Hotepherep, great poisoner of the Nile shall triumph!" The toad proclaimed and boasted loudly as he began to hop up and down on the ground to disorient Taiyou's bearing and knock him over with his rumbling. The toad then lashed his tongue at Taiyou, slapping him across his cheeks repeatedly while chuckling smugly. "Why hitting yourself? Why hitting yourself? Why hitting yourself?" The toad taunted before his tongue slammed into Taiyou's face throwing him flying off, landing on his back away from it.

Taiyou growled in annoyance, getting to his feet...but was a bit unsteady, the effects of the poison still in the air. Despite that he pushed through, and countered with a Power Slash, followed by Cherry Bombs, dealing damage to Hotepherep.

Hotepherep blasted by the Cherry Bomb was stunted for a moment and once slashed by Power Slash using Taiyou's golden sword, the toad shake his body and began to breath out a ghastly cloud of toxic gas, blinding Taiyou in the process before he launched his tongue at Taiyou's body yanking him to the ground and dragged him in circle before tossing him at a mudbrick wall, crashing through it and damaging the granary of the small village.

"Ohohohohoho! This would be so much easier than I thought." Said Hotepherep before he was struck by a lighting bolt, this left him charred and Taiyou emerged with his sword now aglow with the Inferno technique as he began to slash Hotepherep's stomach with the flaming blade, slowly chipping away the frog's defenses and kicked him in the stomach sending him flying back into his own Lily. He coughed and gasped out in panic and shocked as he struggles to break out of the Lily, not wanting to taste his own medicine for long. As he emerged, he began to show signs of itching, strained eyes and bleeding.

"You're finished!" Taiyou roared, before charging forward, and before Hotepherep could react, stabbed him right through the chest, before ripping his sword out, nearly bisecting him, causing him to fall back into the Lily, before Taiyou used Fireburst to ignite both the toad AND the Lily at the same time, before jumping back as both caught fire. When he landed, he felt something on his leg, and noticed a vine wrapped around his leg, before he simply cut it off and ripped the rest off, while the flames sucked in the poisonous gas while incinerating the two monsters.

As the poisonous gas subsided, the peasants began to recover slowly from the initial shock of being assaulted by the unknown toxin. Horus and Kassandra too were slowly waking up and recovered from the initial effects with the both of them rubbing their eyes painfully. "Ooooh, ow, my eyes… the last time that I have problem was when Set took one from me." Said Horus as he groaned and got up to his feet and so did Kassandra. "Good thing that you didn't have to worry about having a blade stuck into your back." Said Kassandra with a bit of sarcasm as they got up.

The peasants were still rubbing their eyes and groaned out in a little as they stood up and picked up their farming tools looking around, slightly dazed and confused by what had transpired earlier. All of them were equally shocked and dazed by what had happened, so they opted to walk around a bit trying to wash their faces with the freshwater of the Nile and hopefully not get mauled by hungry crocodiles prowling the water.

The sound of water drew their attention as Taiyou was walking back from the river, though his movements were a bit shaky, a few coughs escaping his mouth...before he coughed violently when he reached the shore, a bit of blood coming out as he collapsed, the poisons finally getting to him.

Horus gasped and quickly leapt into the air, flying for Taiyou and held his hand, this transferred some life into Taiyou, keeping him alive just a bit while Kassandra ran over and rolled him over and checked his lungs and heart. "He's breathing but very weak. Hyperventilating, possibly side effects of the toxin we need to take him to a doctor." Said Kassandra as she checked Taiyou's pulses and heart beats. Horus nodded to Kassandra observation and began to pick Taiyou up in his hands, "Come we shall fly together!" Horus proclaimed before a shadow of him flew into the sky.

The Shadow circled towards the Hospital in Krokodilopolis's entrance where it marked a glowing halo of entry which Horus then teleported Kassandra and Taiyou over. Once there, they ran inside the hospital where they saw various priests and doctors, men and women, were serving some of the afflicted patients of the Baboon. "Doctors, I need your help nursing this young lad!" Horus exclaimed running towards the doctor who wore a cheetah pelt wrapped around his body. The doctor helped Horus rested Taiyou on a bed and began to examine him carefully for signs of injuries and toxins, "Amunet, please get the necessary medicines, prepare some towels, incense and of course some herbal medicines." The nurse nodded to him and quickly ran to fetch the necessary items.

Taiyou was occasionally coughing, bits of blood coming out, but by now it had lessened a lot compared to before. The doctor was also seen tending to Kassandra noticing that she too had a bit of blood bleeding out but not as severe as Petsuchos or Taiyou as she was exposed the least while Horus sat down opposite of them to rest himself. The nurse brought in some towels, water, fresh fruits and medicine as they began to tend to the patients there.

Taiyou and Kassandra had their eyes washed of bleeding and wet towels applied to them to ease the painful sores while also taking in medicines carefully administered by the doctor to prevent further infections. "Hold on I think I hear something." Said Horus as he stood up hearing the thudding footsteps and saw Anubis came running into the hospital to see them. "You kids alright!? What just happened? Are you infected? I knew it I shouldn't have left you alone, it's too dangerous out there!" Anubis exclaimed as he got down to his knees inspecting Taiyou and Kassandra and panted in stressful panic.

It seemed he'd disturbed them, as Taiyou groaned a little and slowly opened his eyes. "Is...is everyone okay?" he groaned, trying to get up slowly.

As he tried to get up, Horus slowly came over to push him lying back down on the bed with his lone index finger, only to have Taiyou rise up again but this time Anubis stopped Horus, earning a cheeky smile from the falcon crown prince. "Is the miasma gone?" Taiyou asked again, wanting to make sure. "I'm pretty sure I defeated the source of the Miasma, and...yeah, it was definitely the one holding the Water Lily brush."

"Miasma? Doctor do you know of any cures for Miasma?" Anubis asked and the doctor shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry my lord, but I know nothing about cures for Miasma. In fact there's no records of any in our medical texts." Said the doctor profusely before hearing Thoth's voice echoing through the hallways, "Perhaps I can be of service." Thoth swoop into the hospital room as an Ibis at first but one with strangely colored feather and a crown on its head. Once landed on his feet, he transformed back to his normal form and held his Book in hand. "The Miasma here seems to have a more… foreign origin than I initially thought." Thoth stated.

"Foreign? From where o' wise Vizier?" Horus asked and with the doctor scratching their heads. "None other than Stymphalia Lake, just take a look at what I found." Thoth handed Horus a rather large eagle feather for Horus to inspect, the falcon crown prince noticed it was rather shiny and metallic at the same time. Horus then stroke the feather to see for himself just exactly how sharp it was, he nearly pricked his own finger however, when he noticed that indeed the feather was the confirmation he needed. "So the Stymphalian Eagle is here? No doubt migrated thanks to Kek." Horus noted and Thoth nodded.

The Ibis then used his book to project a page showing the image of the Stymphalian Eagle being slayed by Herakles after he scared them out of the forest and killed them with bow and arrows. "As you can see, the Stymphalian Bird was known to be in that one Lake Stymphalia region, thought extinct. But the recent miasma seems to have a similar effect to the Stymphalian Bird droppings that destroyed crops." Horus hearing this nodded to Thoth, concurring his point. "Right and you want us to eliminate it? Consider it done." Said Horus only to have Thoth cleared his throat to correct his point. "I don't want it gone, I want it captured to study its physiology and biology." Said Thoth with a stern huff.

"Wait...you want to catch something like that?" Taiyou asked a little incredulously. "Isn't that dangerous, even more so than just fighting them, to whoever is brave and/or stupid enough to try and do it?"

Thoth was apparently nonchalant towards Taiyou's objection but was rather trying to keep his cool to explain himself, even Anubis shot himself up in a shocked expression asking Thoth the reason for such a plan. "Thoth, what's the meaning of this? You're not suggesting the idea of…" He paused mid sentence seeing Thoth held up his hand and talons at Anubis's face before clearing his throat out. "Unorthodox yes, but I know there is benefits. I am not entertaining the idea of the eagle being our pet, but rather think of it domesticated as our fledgling air force bird of prey. Maybe I can understand the source of its aggression, maybe even breed it for your use."

Hearing this, Horus blunk and whistled out in realization what Thoth was aiming for and proceeded to clap his hands slowly before speeding it up to match. "I can't argue with that logic then." Said Horus. Anubis nervously scratched his head however, he may have been known as an unorthodox deity in Egypt, but even him found the idea of catching the Stymphalian Eagle highly daunting. "I find the idea very risky, possibly destructive to the whole of Faiyum and beyond. How will you breed this thing anyway?" Thoth was heard chuckling softly to Anubis when he was asked the question and shrugged. "I don't know." He remarked half jokingly.

"...if you don't have a fully thought out plan, then don't pitch it yet, especially if it can potentially be a danger to innocents," Taiyou remarked dryly.

"I don't know HOW will I breed this monster of a bird even if it was prudent or not to do so. But I know how to catch and tame it. It would be a useful beast of war against your plant enemy." Said Thoth as he handed them a bag of bird seed oddly enough, when Horus opened the bag and stared into it, he blinked and felt oddly aroused seeing the meal as if he wanted to eat it whole. Only to be stopped by Thoth as he shut the lid of the bag, "That's for the Stymphalian Eagle. Make sure it sees it and eat it and not other birds." The Vizier instructed and Horus nodded with a nervous smile to Thoth.

"I'm going to guess the bait is something we DON'T want them seeing until the right time," Taiyou said dryly at seeing Horus's momentary expression.

Horus nodded but gave a thumbs up to Thoth nonetheless before opting to go hunt the Stymphalian Eagle with Taiyou and Anubis. "Kassandra, I hope you don't mind if I have some heart-to-heart with you." Thoth asked her, prompting the lycan to shoot a steely glare at him. "You may, after the iron bird." She then left the hospital and went with Taiyou instead leaving Thoth to sigh out hopelessly, seeing that he can't stop a Spartan woman once she had made up her mind.

As the two left the city once again, Set stood on a rooftop looking down at them leaving, his eyes fixed firmly on Taiyou seeing him as a son of sorts to Anubis judging by how Anubis kept close to Taiyou all the time. The deity of chaos leaned against the railing of the balcony of where he stood and stroke his chin, pondering his thoughts on what would this surrogate Father-Son relationship teach him about his own relationship with Anubis.

"Hard to be excited about hunting Stymphalian Eagle isn't it? After all that thing is vicious beyond words." Horus stated worriedly as he and Anubis walked with Taiyou and Kassandra out to the marshy area of Faiyum where birds were known to congregate. It was a rather dry area of the oasis where the avians were known to fly over, circle above and pick off fishes. Flocks of herons tend to gather by the bushes and reeds and stood in the water. "Hardly, normally I would just slay them given half the chance, but Thoth… well, he always has a thing for birds and rare species. Like Aristotle founding biology, Thoth want to expand it." Said Anubis.

"I still say its a bad idea, but if it could work, and it could help, I'm willing to give it a shot," Taiyou sighed, before adding. "But if push comes to shove...any objections with slaying it?" he checked.

"None. At least I can be the wife of Herakles if I do slay it." Kassandra remarked to which Horus and Anubis nodded to her before moving towards where the birds would be, one slight footstep by him alone was enough to send them flying into the air. A whole marshland was washed with the flappings of Herons as they fly away from Anubis. "Anubis you're on the ground with the kid, trap that bird. I'll fly as bait." Horus stated to Anubis before morphing himself into a feral peregrine falcon and perched on Anubis's shoulder. "Got it, just don't let it rape you in the process." Anubis replied sarcastically before letting Horus take off soaring into the sky.

As Horus flew into the sky, he flapped his wings and circled around, using his raptor eyes to spot targets and observe the ground for any signs of the Stymphalian eagle's last known location. As he flew around however, they all began to feel the odd change in wind direction blowing from East to West with the loud metal clanking sounds accompanying it. "Something tells me I'm getting close," he frowned, seeing as there was no other reason for the sound of metal clanking to be heard this high up.

Soon enough, Horus saw the eagle flying at him at full speed, it was visibly vicious and predatory. Territorial? Not quite. From the looks on its metal face, Horus could tell it was feeling domineering towards the crown prince. The vicious feral bird made a beeline straight at Horus with its talons sharpened and aimed right at Horus's rumps.

Horus attempted to fly away at full speed, flapping his feathery wings as fast as possible before the Stymphalian eagle caught up to him. The significantly larger bird caught Horus by his rumps with its talons causing the crown prince to shriek out in pain. Then he felt the Stymphalian Eagle forced itself on him, rutting and humping him practically making the encounter a rape and mating flight.

"Okay, this is getting too much!" Taiyou gasped at what they were seeing. "Anyone have a bow? I don't care what Thoth wants to do with those birds, but this one is going down!"

"I have a bow, a Persian coward killed Leonidas with it." Kassandra said, taking hers out. She'd gotten it during her free time, and she could agree this was something they could use it for.

"Thank you," Taiyou nodded, taking the bow, and notching an arrow, before he soon aimed it at the eagle which was having its way with Horus. Pulling back, he carefully aimed and let the arrow fly, which struck the eagle right under its wing. But instead of causing damage, the bronze tipped arrow lodged between the iron feather and remained there.

"Kids! Help! I think this bird REALLY wants me to be its mate!" Horus screeched out as he was trying to fly as hard as he can but the Stymphalian Eagle continued to rape and hump him as it was now slowly leaking precum fluid on Horus's anus and the pheromone was starting to penetrate Horus's nose as well. This began to affect his flight capability as he flew erratically in the air with the Stymphalian Eagle in tow, the larger iron raptor was pecking lovingly on Horus's neck.

"This is REALLY not something I thought I would...nor wanted...to see," Taiyou growled, before casting Power Slash, slashing at the Eagle, though making sure to not get close to Horus.

Now annoyed by Taiyou's Power Slash with its feather being chipped off by the Slash causing the Stymphalian Eagle to break off of Horus and make a bead line down to Taiyou. Horus however was apparently still drowsy and drunk from the rape experience by a monstrous feral bird. The Stymphalian Eagle spotted Taiyou and Kassandra with its powerful raptor eyes, and quickly fling its feather pieces down at them. These were sharper than any blades known to them and once the edge of the feather struck even a blade of grass, reeds were given a sharp close shave, the top were cut clean off.

Taiyou acted quickly and shielded them with his Reflector, while using Power Slash to deflect as many of the projectiles as he could, causing them to fall all around them but never quite hitting them. "Try this!" he shouted, casting Thunderbolt, which caused a blast of lightning to fall on the Eagle.

The eagle screeched out in pain and yelped hard when it was struck by the Thunderbolt, it then flapped its wings and fly upward away from the group and circled around again, chasing Horus with the sadistic satisfaction of mating and conquering him. Then Horus quickly make a divebomb maneuver to avoid being cornered by the hostile avian. As he flew downward near them, Anubis then opened the bag of bird seed and waited for Horus to pass and the Stymphalian Eagle to come close.

"This bird isn't very bright is it?" Taiyou said dryly, hitting it with more Power Slashes, getting its attention again.

"Love makes you foolish." Kassandra replied dryly as they dived down and hit the dirt letting the Stymphalian Eagle flew over. In the process it cleaved through the reeds and eventually catching sight of Anubis and the bird seed sack. It appeared to have a double take expression as it slowed down its speed and was caught in Anubis's Mummify ability. Stunted by Anubis, restrained and unable to fight back for a moment, it screeched and shrieked. Anubis then shoved a handful of bird seeds into its mouth and forced the massive bird to swallow it whole.

He then shoved another into the bird's mouth and repeat the process before running off knowing the Mummify spell was not going to last any longer. Soon enough, the monstrous bird was freed but it was now stumbling about, pecking the ground with its iron beak and looking drunk flailing around. Horus was hiding inside a nearby bush and panted in fear, nauseous at how it felt for him to be raped by the feral bird. He peered out of the bushes looking at the Stymphalian Eagle trying desperately to find him, he felt his heart beat faster, occasionally skipping a beat when he saw the bird slowing down and bowing its head to him.

"...did that actually work?" Taiyou asked half incredulously.

Horus then morphed back into his normal deity form and stepped out of the bush slowly, he saw that the Stymphalian Eagle was pecking at the scattered bird seeds on the ground before hopping over and rubbed its head against Horus's body length. "I think it works. Thoth is brilliant, he IS brilliant. He knows we'll be able to handle this." Horus stated with a sheepish but relief laugh as he felt the Stymphalian bird being gentle towards him for once.

The crown prince was cautious of the metal feathers as he rubbed his head against the Stymphalian Eagle's head in return before kissing its cheeks. The eagle then bowed its head again at Horus recognizing him as its master. "I think we can return to Thoth with mission accomplished once again." He grinned in delight at Taiyou and Kassandra who snarked back sarcastically. "I'm sure he will congratulate you on a mating assignment as well." Said kassandra as Horus blushed red.

"I'm still trying to figure out what the heck happened on that part," Taiyou said, looking weirded out. "Seriously, this kind of stuff never happens in Nippon…"

Anubis himself didn't seem to mind much or have an opinion at all before leading them back to Thoth with the Stymphalian Eagle in tow. Once they had returned to Thoth, the Vizier smiled in approval and congratulated them all. "Thanks to you Faiyum is safe once again, but most of all Egypt has finally obtained a Stymphalian Eagle for research.

Its feather will prove quite useful in advancing the smithing and forging." Thoth stated to them all with Horus being eager and excited to hear of the successes being congratulated upon. "Thank you Thoth, with this Egypt's fledgling Air Force, bearing my image, will rewrite the game plan for future wars." Horus proudly boasted. "This is something he has been working on." Anubis whispered to Taiyou's ears while the Stymphalian bird was cuddling its head against Thoth's body and crotch, causing the Vizier some ticklish and pleasurable sensations.

"Easy now big bird," He shushed at it gently, stroking and massaging its feathers while looking into its eyes contently as he knelt down with his book in hand. "Your kind may yet to find a better future after all." Said Thoth with a promising tone as he stroked its chin making it chirped happily.

"As for why it suddenly attempted to mate with Horus, it's possible the Stymphalian Eagle was seeking to propagate with an avian deity like Horus due to his rather young and virulent nature. A potent mate if you think about it, regardless, I believe there are possibilities to propagate the eagle with other known avians in the region. Such as the Arabian Roc Eagle." Thoth concluded making Horus blushed and smiled sheepishly in return feeling he was wooed and his ego was flaunted by proxy.

"But he's male. That would have done absolutely nothing…" Taiyou pointed out.

"Well, seeing that deities can have male pregnancy… ask Ra…" Horus replied nervously knowing what transpired between Ra and his two other brothers Atum and Amun. "It's entirely possible that I might have ended up bearing its own children… who knows. But at least it didn't happen. Now come on, let's go find something to eat." Horus gestured for them to head over to the nearby tavern for a meal in Krokodilopolis.

There Taiyou and co spotted Set sitting by a table with a plate of grains and rice with some honeyed beef. The chaos deity was having an odd calm and sober moment taking his meal, he was genuinely enjoying it with his eyes slowly darted around scanning the room for something interesting when he saw them.

"So… you kids captured a Stymphalian Eagle? Good, now I have something might be useful for the boy." Set stated calmly as he swallowed his meal. "There has been sightings of a lotus, an oddly dark green lotus, its bulb is larger than any that has been seen before not to mention its presence seem to disrupt crops and farms. Sounds familiar?" Set asked Taiyou.

"Not really no, but I can imagine it's tied to the last two things that had some of my Brushes with them," Taiyou sighed. "Where is it? We have to stop it as soon as we can, and I don't want to hear about my powers being used to hurt people longer than I need to."

Set glanced around, looking left and right before leaning in and spoke to Taiyou's ears. "Dionysias, the farms there reported some of their crops have failed. Compensations have to be readied and concerns of ruined livelihoods might be over their heads." He finished before leaning back against his chair prompting Anubis to crack his neck around. "So in short, we go there, find that strange lotus and destroy it, give the boy back his power and done." He concluded prompting Set to nod in agreement. "Precisely."

"Catch?" Anubis asked Set skeptically seeing how nonchalant the chaos deity was and his mannerism seems to suggest something was off with Set. "No catch. Just who gets to kill it first." Said Set as he left the table and gave the tavern owner a bag of silver Drachma coins and left the tavern for them to rest in for the time being. Set left the tavern, seemingly to go outside for something, leaving them to rest and nap for the time being.

"...this has to do with his reputation, doesn't it?" Taiyou sighed, clearly hearing the inbetween intent.

"No need to ask that." Anubis remarked coldly as they turned in for the night and rest. As they rest and catch some much needed sleeps, Anubis tossed and turned in his bed. Rolling around and kicking the blanket growling and grunting. He sweat like the downpour of salty droplets, his contorted and stretched facial expression suggest horror, terror and fear. The anxiety was building up and it was no climax he was seeing in his dream.

"Please Set! Stop it, he's your son!" Nephthys cried out from beyond the doors of the Philadelphia Estate while Anubis stood in front of the wooden gate seeing blood dripping out from the otherside. The sky was dark red with blood for rain and then the thunder tore the sky with a shrieked from within the estate. "Noooooo!"

"Mother!" Anubis cried out pushing the gates open and ran into the estate, blood was now flooding the living room, the sweet smell of incense was gone followed by the wailing sound of an infant crying desperately for its parents protection. The sobbing and weeping of Nephthys made the interior faded away, parting and defragmenting into a black void of oblivion. The only guide for Anubis forward was a trail of blood running into twisted and winding paths. "No no no no no! Please stop Set! My love, he's your son, I swear it. Don't you see? He's crying for you to love him!" Nephthys cried and begged him for mercy, but the crying of the infant continued.

Eventually Anubis entered a red void and in the middle was a dark silhouette of his beloved mother Nephthys with the blood pool shaped into the axe that Set had to slay his enemies. He collapsed to the ground, despair and grief stricken before falling on all fours. His face looked down crying before the tragedy that he had seen too many times in his dreams. "No… mother… I'm sorry. I couldn't protect you." He began to break into tears, crying like a child before waking up violently in his bed, panting and groaned, rubbing his forehead. When he walked out to his door to open it with a shot or goblet of beer in mind, he found the door wouldn't budge.

He tried to push again but to no avail, it was barricaded, jammed on the other side somehow. He then pressed his ear against the wall to listen in on the other side if there was someone or something blocking it, he heard a mallet and some nails being hammered into the wall. Probably with planks of woods for increase barricading. "Show time!" Set declared and began to cackle madly almost like he was drunk on a power trip before proceeding to run off.

"Do we want to know?" came Taiyou's annoyed voice as he and Kassandra walked into the room, having been woken up by the sound of hammering.

"Personally I think he's got a lot of screws loose," Issun said in annoyance.

"Make that he's been off the rail for a long time now." Horus added in the next room to Anubis's own before he proceeded to smash through the door with his halberd and ripped out the wooden barricades on the other doors.

"What in the world does he think he's going to accomplish with this?" Taiyou asked in annoyance, before helping with a Power Slash, the wood completely falling apart.

"Obviously to wow his constituents and attract new followers. Come on, he couldn't have gone far." Said Horus as he then led them out to the streets of Krokodilopolis and used his ultimate ability to take off into the air and flew his shadow around Faiyum to scout for a good landing spot. He flew about trying to find Dionysias before coming across the settlement there being plagued by chronic crop failures.

He then snapped to a landing point and began to teleport his passengers there. "Come we shall fly together!" Horus spouted before landing on the spot, sending them all to Dionysias on the other side of Faiyum. Taiyou saw that in the far end of the water front was a massive lotus bulb. One that was purple and black as night with the petals once unfolded it sent out a miasmic smoke cloud that reduce the crops of barley, wheat, and onions and vegetables into withered plants and send the peasants into a panic craze trying to understand what had just happened.

"This is terrible," Taiyou frowned. "If there's one Brush I can tell could have caused this if corrupted, it'd have to be the Bloom technique. We have to get it back."

"Which is exactly why we're here," Kassandra said dryly.

"I know that. Just...reiterating I guess," Taiyou sighed.

"Look there's uncle Set charging in against the fiendish flora!" Horus blurted out pointing them towards the sight of Set running across the oasis of Faiyum towards the Devil Lotus, but as he came close, he hopped into the air and swung his axe going for a quick strike against the plant. Only for his axe to bounce off without dealing a single swipe or clean cut. After a second look, they saw that the plant somehow had a magical shield protecting it from harm. It continued to float gently along the water current, spreading its air around the place to poison more crops.

"Looks like he's not doing too well against it," Taiyou frowned. "In that case…!" he jumped off, and quickly used several Power Slashes to leave several marks against the Lotus, while at the same time pulling out his sword and slashing the Lotus with it both to slow his fall and to cause more damage, causing it to actually let out a howl of pain. Taiyou quickly jumped back when it lashed out with several vines, but when he got some distance, he realized the damage he'd dealt was quickly healing by itself. "Is it using Bloom to fix itself?" he growled.

"It would seem as though it retrofitted the Bloom to repair itself." Anubis commented in a low growl before quickly levitated into the air with his eyes glow bright cyan blue before shooting up his Death Gaze. The Lotus was struck hard on its side with the Gaze piercing through the barrier defending it and damaging its hide for a moment. They can hear the shrieking sound of the Lotus as it soon bloomed, revealing what appeared to be a human in the center with a root connected to the center of the Lotus.

"High Priest of Sobek! So you were the Lotus all along!" Set exclaimed furiously as he ran over to the Lotus and teleported over using his sand spawn and sandstorm ability. He then slashed the High Priest tucked to the Lotus across his torso and used his fury to slash and hack, tearing away the overglorified puppet. "HELP ME! SAVE ME!" The priest shrieked and moaned in pain as he or rather it, was being slashed and torn apart by the chaos deity.

"Did the Lotus absorb him?" Taiyou frowned, before creating several Cherry Bombs that exploded around the Lotus, damaging it further, but it quickly repaired itself. "Think we can save him?" he asked, though his tone made it clear he wasn't too confident of the chances himself.

The Cherry Bombs blasted the Lotus and caused it to flail around before the petals folded up, trapping Set inside. They can hear the muffled screaming and groaning sound of Set as he frustratingly fight around, trying to break free of Devil's grip. It then changed the rhythm of battle by puffing out clouds of toxins trying to disrupt as much of the population as possible. In the process however, it began to spin around as it gently float down the Oasis water current.

"Oh no you don't!" Horus growled flying over and slash across it using his Halberd only to run into the same barrier once again preventing him from striking it down permanently. He however didn't stop, he struck the Lotus with a gust of wind, sending it flying upward before attacking its underbelly. This caused so much pain to it that Set was bellowed out, flying into the air before planting his head down on the sand like an ostrich.

"I don't think whittling it away is working," Kassandra frowned. "We might need to kill it faster than it can heal!"

"Working on that!" Taiyou said, using a Thunderbolt to try and burn it up, but it was again healing faster than it could be damaged. However, that's when it seemed to set its sights on him, and lashed out with its vines, to which he deftly dodged, and Power Slashed any vines that got close, though it seemed a bit more persistent till he got out of range.

"Don't you suppose it might have an aversion towards its original owner?" Kassandra asked sarcastically to Taiyou before pointing him to a Felucca with oars to paddle out to intercept the Lotus. Anubis in the meantime was tag teaming with Horus to fight the Lotus with Anubis defeating the shield with his Breath of Locusts before Horus slamming in with his halberd strike swiping at its petals and hides. Those strikes cut hard and the Lotus bloomed out, revealing the overglorified human puppet inside its mouth, which was the fat and overweight High Priest...very much dead, as the puppet fell out of the Lotus. With its 'host' gone, the lotus began lashing out, the vines draining the life out of nearby plants, while its vines lashed out at the group.

Taiyou saw that and used Power Slash to sever more and more vines quickly, but they still kept growing, as the Lotus kept regenerating. "This is becoming endless!" he growled. "Any suggestions?"

"Yes! We deal the killing blow!" Horus exclaimed out loud before grabbing Taiyou's hand and lifted him up in the air with him, the two then dive bombed into the Lotus's bulb and within it, Taiyou unleashed his full arsenal of recovered Brush techniques like Power Slash, Inferno, Cherry Bomb and Thunderbolt causing the bulb to finally collapse. The Devil Lotus crashed into the banks of the Nile with the appearance of the bulb disintegrated into a billion light particles with Taiyou and Horus walking out from it.

The two were covered in slimy and sticky saps and goo of the monstrous being but Taiyou himself felt that his Greensprout Brush technique has been fully recovered. Set however was not pleased by this. When he got his head removed from the hole he stuck in, he saw the population of Faiyum converging on Taiyou and Horus, heralding them as heroes and cheered them. "NO! NO! NO! You've ruined everything! EVERYTHING! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THEIR HERO!" Set threw his temper tantrum and jumped up and down in frustration.

He should have been paying more attention as during his little tirade, the vines lashed out and aimed right for him. However…

"Look out!" Taiyou shouted, ramming into him and pushing him out of the way, but in the process, the vines managed to catch on to Taiyou, the wolf struggling to get them off. However, as they wrapped around his limbs and torso, they started to glow a bright green color, and with suddenly greater strength, started to pull him towards the lotus.

"No! NOT TODAY!" Set growled out in anger and fury as he then picked up his battle axe and ran towards Taiyou, driven to madness, anger and absolute feral rage. He hopped into the air and slashed at the vine, tearing at it and spin around like a tornado for his blade to cut it apart.

The vines broke apart, allowing Taiyou to back off….but more quickly came after him, as if the lotus was now fully focused on him, the cut apart pieces soon regenerated and latched on to him to try to pull him again.

"WHAT! IS! THIS! THING!?" Set roared out enrage as he then fully entered his primal rage with his axe dropped to the floor and his back had glowing red wing like spines rose up. He then quickly made a mad dash towards the lotus and latched on to its body. He then slashed off bits of the Lotus using his claws and teeth. "He just won't give up, gotta give him that." Horus nudged Anubis gently before flying towards Set to give him a life boost before slashing the Lotus with his halberd. Anubis then followed it up with his Death Gaze ultimate ability blasting the Lotus in the center mass.

The Lotus took a lot of damage...but soon lashed out with its vines and grabbed a hold of them, quickly regenerating, and starting to drain energy out of them. At the same time it lashed out with several vines, and snared Taiyou again before he could try to fight back, and soon wrapped around his torso, forcing him to drop his weapons and pulling him towards it. The wolf struggled, but the more he did, the more the Lotus drained his allies to strengthen the grip of the vines, while also wrapping around his tail to stop him from using his brush.

Before long he was facing the Lotus, which soon closed and retracted its blossom, revealing a lid of sorts which opened up, and before he could do anything, he was promptly thrown inside, the plant closing up. Taiyou tried to fight back when he was thrown in, but inside a number of vines snared him again, while the chamber he was in was quickly flooded with juices which made fighting harder.

Outside, they heard a few sounds, and after several minutes the blossom soon appeared again, and opened up to reveal Taiyou, vines wrapping around his torso and extending to his arms, his clothing completely gone, revealing that his fur had a few greenish tints here and there, with his lower half seemingly embedded into the lotus, the expression on his face somewhat unfocused as if in a trance. At the same time, the Lotus's colors became brighter, as it seemed healthier and stronger than before.

"No no no no! What the hell is it doing now!?" Anubis groaned and struggled to break free from the vines while Horus pecked at it with his beak before they heard the sound of a screeching eagle. "What the? Is that… The Stymphalian Eagle!" Horus spout out in surprise. The metal clanking of the Stymphalian Eagle's wings became louder and louder with the screeching of the eagle piercing the clouds above. And out of the starry night sky, the metal avian monster dive bombed on the Devil Lotus pummeling it using the sharp beak and feathers.

The Stymphalian Eagle tore through the vines and a third of the Lotus's upper portion and twist around in the sky shaking off residuals on its body. It then circled around for a second run, this time throwing its metal feather at the Devil Lotus, piercing its hides and slash through the outer layer.

However, as impressive as that was, it was for nothing, as the Lotus healed instantly, its once fast regeneration easily doubling or even tripling in speed...followed by lightning striking the eagle as it was flying in mid-air and several Power Slashes impacting against its feathers. Taiyou motioned his arm forward, and a barrage of vines went for the eagle, aiming to trap it till it couldn't move.

As they struggled to break free, they found that the vines were loose and light enough now thanks to the Stymphalian Eagle's distraction. Horus and Set were the first to break free followed by Anubis with his vampiric lifesteal ability leach off of the vines. Once he was free, He bounced off of the plant into the waiting arms of Horus. "I gotcha brother." Horus then flew back away and landed on the sandy shore of Dionysias where they saw Thoth stood with his Book opened.

"Forgive the late arrival, training for the Stymphalian Eagle wasn't done, not yet." Said Thoth as he summoned his Wall of Hieroglyphic Assault, followed by a trio of spells casted from his Book in rapid succession. Passing through the transparent wall amplified their power as they did splash damages on the Lotus, followed by Anubis energy attacks being lobbed through the wall pelting at the Lotus.

The Lotus opened up again, revealing Taiyou who seemed to direct the vines forward again to attack them. However, as the battle was happening, something else was going on as well.

XXXX

Inside of the Lotus, in a mental scape of sorts…

Taiyou groaned as he came to, and found himself in what appeared to be a white void...with what appeared to be vines wrapped around him, with his Brush techniques floating around. Among them, he noticed the Bloom Brush...which was wrapped in a variety of vines which lead to what appeared to be a smaller version of the Lotus which occasionally reached out and tapped into his other brushes. "Is this...within the Lotus?" Taiyou blinked, remembering how he'd been pulled in...and the feeling of something invading his being. "But if the Bloom brush is here...then that means I can try to get it back!" he gasped and started trying to break free from the vines holding him.

XXXX

As Taiyou was busy trying to break free from his binding inside the mental scape, Horus was busy with the others trying to beat back the Lotus. By this point Horus had already slashed apart the Lotus outer layer, revealing the inner meat for Set to skewer through with his rage and anger. Followed by Anubis blasting with his Death Gaze while Thoth levitated in the air with his feet folded into a meditative stance.

The Ibis deity then summoned three hieroglyphic symbols forming into a triangle and aimed it at the monstrous flora. He roared out with fury as he blasted the Final Judgement ultimate ability flying through the wall and slammed into the Devil Lotus's side, piercing and blowing off a massive chunk of its flesh and petals revealing Taiyou within. "Boy! Boy! Snap out of it! Fight it boy! Fight it!" Anubis shouted out loud towards Taiyou, trying to wake him up, however there wasn't any visible reaction, beyond Taiyou turning to face him...and directing the vines at him, followed by several Cherry Bombs.

XXXX

While there was no visible reaction outside, Taiyou heard him, and was pushing with all his might to break free from the vines. With one final roar, Taiyou managed to pull free, even if some of the vines were still wrapped around him. However, he ignored them, and immediately went for the Bloom brush, grabbing hold of the vines around it and started to focus, trying to take it back. As expected, the Lotus resisted, and started wrapping vines around him again, but he pushed through it and kept focusing, not budging an inch.

XXXX

Outside, the elder deities and Kassandra were fighting the Devil Lotus tooth and nail despite the difficulties as they struggled to break the plant's grip on Taiyou. Kassandra was chopping away its various vines using a dropped Xiphos sword of one of the Hoplites, but even then her blade was slowly becoming a dull blunt instrument. Horus and Set halberd and epsilon axe respectively hacked and slashed away the Lotus's base, while Anubis and Thoth were pelting the Lotus with various spells chipping away portions that it regenerated.

In the process, the Devil Lotus quickly ensnared Kassandra by her neck using its vines. The plant lifted Kassandra up her feet, trying to choke her in the process. She yelped and shouted trying to get rid of the vine with the sword, only to have it dropped from her hands, her shouting became ever more desperate and choked as she struggled to break free, her voice reached the ears of not only the quartet outside but also Taiyou inside.

XXXX

Taiyou had been struggling with all his might to break through to his Brush, to take it back, but the Lotus was fighting him the whole way, even trying to ensnare him again, but he didn't give up. However, when he heard Kassandra's shout, he gasped as his eyes widened. "Kassandra!" he shouted in alarm as he doubled his efforts, pushing everything he had into this, and with a roar, broke through to the Brush, the power escaping the Lotus and absorbing back into him, before the world around him went white.

XXXX

Taiyou blinked as he felt his consciousness re-enter his body, and saw the state he was in as well as Kassandra's situation. Gasping he used a Power Slash to free her, followed by summoning his sword, and stabbing it into the Lotus, which let out a screech as its hold on him started to loosen, even if it tried to hold on, and thus was unable to stop him as he ripped himself free and managed to catch Kassandra before she fell to the ground. "Are you alright?" he asked her in worry, pulling the vines off of her neck.

Kassandra gasped and hyperventilated trying to catch her breath before slowing down as she slowly stood up on her feet and nodded to him. "A little later and I would have been in Hades, or the Duat preferably." She remarked dryly. She then looked back at the Lotus seeing its remaining vines were flailing around wildly trying to find its grip of the surrounding environment. "Taiyou, are you alright? Are you hurt badly?" Horus asked concernedly as he flew over to Taiyou and grabbed his shoulder, giving him an added boost in health and strength.

"I'm alright. Granted getting absorbed by the plant was weird, but...it was for the best. I've taken back the Bloom brush, so that Lotus should have lost most of its power including its ability to fix itself," Taiyou nodded, before readying his sword. "Now, this is the end of the line for you!" he growled, before running forward, and lashing out with his sword, adding Power Slash into it and cutting the Lotus clean in half, causing its vines to stop flailing as it fell to the ground in two halves, fading away slowly. Taiyou let out a sigh, before sitting on the ground. "I'm...not looking to experience that again…" he sighed. It wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to him, but it was definitely...weird.

As Horus, Anubis and Thoth came to Taiyou to inspect his wounds and heal them, Set was on the ground pounding his fists and feet, kicking up dirt and sand while he whined and moped. "NOOOOO! NOOOO! You ruined it! You ruined my chance at making a comeback! I'm supposed to be the hero here don't you see? I've been the villain for too long now!" Set moaned and cried out throwing his temper tantrum like a toddler as he used his Epsilon axe slashing and smashing rocks and kicking up sand.

"You're...not going to be seen as one if you keep that up," Taiyou sweat dropped. "Rather than trying to be a hero from one big action, why not try to be a hero through many smaller actions that add up over time?" he suggested again.

Set hearing Taiyou started to slow down, he sobbed and buried his face in both hands trying to keep Taiyou from seeing his shame to no avail. Taiyou can see traces of tears falling down his cheeks as Set gripped his axe's hilt harder in a tight grip. "What would that change? The people are fickle, kindness they take for granted. Violence, they crumble in fear but never would they make up their mind on reverence for me." Said Set in a despair ridden voice knowing exactly what he had to deal with everyday of his life.

"It HAS to be better than wallowing in this, right?" Taiyou tried to get him to understand. He couldn't understand fully what Set was going through, but at the very least it should be better to have something to work towards rather than stay like this…

"You don't know what it's like!" Set growled out and delivered a gut punch to Taiyou and pushed him away before turning around and walking away looking out into the desert feeling a bleak future gripping his mind and judgement. He collapsed on his knees and looked up into the night sky, countless stars on the celestial body of his mother Nut.

He could see the star of Osiris shining bright, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury and other constellations like Orion. Yet not one single constellation for him. He was alone, his followers were migrants and anyone none Egyptian stock, he wanted the love of his native people, and yet they look away from him at every turn. He sobbed and cried uncontrollably. Crying and digging his claws into the sand knowing that others might be watching, but he opted to simply let go, and let his tears, his depression take hold.

"Is he...going to be okay?" Taiyou asked in worry.

Horus placed his hand on Taiyou's shoulder, gripping him tightly and looked down at his face sympathetically. "I did what I could to reconcile with him, but there's nothing more I can do. Neither can you, let him be." Said Horus with a sympathetic sigh before looking back at the crying Set feeling helpless that he could not assist in anyway at all.

"Let him drunk and wallow. It changes nothing." Anubis snided poisonously, his words emanated with grudge and hatred that Taiyou felt as fiery and stinging as any demon's blades. He could tell that what happened between Anubis and Set may never heal even with time. The wound of a childhood lost was too great, and it seems that Anubis had grown apathetic towards Set, like how Set was apathetic towards Anubis when he was a pup.

"Wife murderer, father he prides himself. Nothing but a psycho who wanted me dead as a pup." He grumbled further, firing his hate and venom out of his mouth while Thoth sighed disappointingly but also out of apparent lack of progress between the two.

Taiyou frowned as he saw the interaction...before a chill came over him as a sudden tiredness hit, causing him to shiver and fall to his knees.

Kassandra saw this and quickly came over to him, helping him up to his legs and held one hand over her shoulder and helped him walking around. "Something's wrong again?" Kassandra asked Taiyou concernedly but lacking any sense of surprises as she had seen too much by now. "Taiyou, how do you feel right now?" Thoth asked leaning over slightly as he then summoned a spell from his Tome to heal Taiyou just in case.

"I-I think I'm okay…" Taiyou said. "Just...maybe some leftovers from being in that plant…" he groaned.

"Are you sure?" Thoth asked interrogatively before casting the spell on Taiyou giving him a sense of rejuvenation while Horus was helping Kassandra carrying him back to the Felucca. "Come on, maybe you should get some sleep, been pushing yourself for too long now." Said Horus as he and Anubis went back to the felucca with Taiyou and Kassandra.

Thoth looked back at Set and sighed out stroking his chin thinking what could he possibly do to help Set. "Bread and Circus? That might be a good idea." Thoth mused in thought. "Are you coming Thoth?" Horus asked with a loud shout across the reeds, Thoth glanced back at Horus and shook his head negatively. "No thank you Horus. Feel free to go ahead, I still have… something to take care of." He stated and looked back at Set and his Stymphalian Eagle. Horus and Anubis simply pressed onward paddling away from the riverbank with Taiyou and Kassandra heading back to Krokodilopolis for rest.


End file.
